The man accused of raping former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins is set to stand trial after claims he would not receive a fair hearing because of "damaging publicity" failed to convince a judge to halt his case.
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In the ACT Supreme Court on Friday afternoon, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum rejected Bruce Lehrmann's application for a permanent or temporary stay of criminal proceedings.
Lehrmann, aged in his 20s, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
The Queensland man denies allegations he raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House in March 2019, when the pair worked for federal government minister Linda Reynolds.
Chief Justice McCallum on Friday said Lehrmann had sought to have his case stayed by arguing the nature of considerable publicity surrounding the matter would make a fair trial "impossible".
The charge of sexual intercourse without consent cannot be tried by judge alone in the ACT, and Lehrmann claimed the court would be unable to find enough impartial people to form a jury.
"Secondly, he contends that the damaging publicity is of such a nature that nothing a trial judge can do ... can relieve against the unfair consequences of that publicity," Chief Justice McCallum said.
Details of the publicity in question cannot be reported, nor can the evidence and submissions relied upon as part of the stay application or Chief Justice McCallum's reasons for dismissing it.
Also on Friday, the ACT's top judge refused Lehrmann's request for orders that would force media to take down 14 specific articles.
Chief Justice McCallum said some of the 14 articles were no longer on the internet, and she did not think what remained online was incapable of being addressed by appropriate directions to a jury.
The judge stressed she was not condoning a media "free for all", noting Australia had "robust contempt laws" in place to regulate coverage of criminal cases.
"To seek instead to regulate media discussion of criminal proceedings by the inexact tool of suppression and non-publication orders is a pious hope, particularly since the advent of the internet and social media," Chief Justice McCallum said.
The judge further rejected a proposed injunction, which Lehrmann sought to prevent future publication of any material linking himself and Ms Higgins to the court case or its "subject matter".
Chief Justice McCallum said such an order would be "impossible to enforce".
"It is not clear even to me to whom it is directed," she said.
Six weeks of court time has been set aside for Lehrmann's trial, which is scheduled to begin on June 6.
