The chief prosecutor in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann says he thought it was possible there was a conspiracy involving police and politicians to ensure the former Coalition staffer walked free.
The ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold SC, is the first witness at an independent inquiry investigating the prosecution of Lehrmann, who was accused of sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins.
Lehrmann has consistently denied allegations that he raped Higgins, a colleague and fellow political staffer, in the office of then defence industry minister, Linda Reynolds, in March 2019. He pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
Drumgold was questioned on Wednesday by counsel assisting the inquiry, Erin Longbottom KC, about a letter he wrote to the ACT chief police officer, Neil Gaughan, after the collapse of the first trial.
The letter outlined serious allegations regarding several police, and called for the inquiry which is currently being held.
Drumgold said that he wrote the letter because of the “passion” a number of police held about the case not proceeding, the perceived involvement of Reynolds and other politicians in the process, and the interactions between territory and federal police.
“My concern was there was so many strange things that had occurred, and were they connected,” Drumgold told the inquiry.
“I’d had a year and a half, starting from the outset [of his involvement in the case], of police passionately telling me this matter shouldn’t proceed.
“The compounding matters increased my concern to the extent that I was very concerned these moving parts were interconnected.”
When asked by Longbottom if he thought there was a conspiracy involved, he said: “I thought there was enough incidences to make it possible, if not probable.”
Walter Sofronoff KC, who is heading the inquiry, asked Drumgold whether he had considered whether the explanation for the perceived issues that had occurred during the prosecution was the extraordinary nature of the case, in that it involved Parliament House, the emerging #MeToo movement, the prime minister, and the Logies.
Sofronoff also suggested it was possible that investigating police had “wholly outmoded attitudes” towards how alleged victims behave and are expected to behave.
“That’s an obvious explanation for their antipathy,” he said.
“They’re misguided, misconceived, rather than that they are pursuing some political agenda.”
Drumgold said he had no evidence for his concerns other than the views of the officers, and the passion with which they were held, but said he was “completely blind to what was going on”.
“I’m only seeing what’s breaking the surface, and I’m not seeing what is going on under the surface.”
Sofronoff also slammed media reporting of his hearings on Wednesday, saying he considered closing them to the public because of “loathsome” stories that may have been in contempt and defamed Brittany Higgins.
He said that he had decided with “some trepidation” that he would allow the hearings to continue in public, but that he would not hesitate to act if further acts of “scandalous”, “unjustified” and “prurient” journalism resulted from the inquiry.
“I have been made very sensitive to the damage that can be done and it will now take very little more for me to go about my work in a very different way,” Sofronoff said.
He said the offending media outlets should do everything that can be done to remove the stories.
Drumgold was also asked about a statement he made after the decision not to retry Lehrmann. He said in the statement: “Miss Higgins has faced a level of personal attack that I have not seen in over 20 years of doing this work.
“She has done so with bravery, grace and dignity, and it is my hope that this will now stop, and Miss Higgins now be allowed to heal.”
He told the inquiry that he now considered he probably should not have made that part of the statement, as he “foolishly” thought the media may give her a break, but it had no impact.
“It was on my part naive that it would have had any benefit,” he said.
“I think that the trust in the media that Mr Sofronoff appears to have lost today was lost on me following that.”
When asked by Longbottom whether he also sympathised with the impact the statement may have had on Lehrmann, he said he felt for everyone involved in the case and there were no winners and losers, only “losers and losers”.
The inquiry also heard that an ACT deputy chief police officer specifically warned staff against meeting with lawyers for Lehrmann only days before a detective involved in the case did so.
The inquiry was established by the ACT government after it said there had been a “number of complaints and allegations” about the trial.
A first trial was abandoned after a juror brought in outside research papers on sexual assault and in December 2022 Drumgold announced that a planned retrial would not go ahead because of fears about Higgins’s health.
The hearing continues.
