Prosecutor Shane Drumgold and ACT police say they did not see the contents of the Sofronoff inquiry’s findings before they were leaked to the media.
The independent board of inquiry was established to investigate the ACT criminal justice system’s handling of Bruce Lehrmann’s prosecution for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.
The final report of inquiry by Walter Sofronoff KC was handed to the ACT government this week but not publicly released. The territory government is claiming the report needs to be considered through cabinet processes and will be tabled in the legislative assembly at the end of August.
Sources claim the report makes damning findings about the conduct of Drumgold, the ACT’s director of public prosecutions, alleging that he failed in several key duties and made “untrue” statements before a court.
Drumgold issued a short statement on Thursday saying he was not in a position to respond to the findings against him because he had not seen the report.
“Unfortunately I have neither seen the report, nor have I been informed of any content so I am not in a position to respond,” he said.
The Australian Federal Police Association is now calling for the immediate release of the report, saying there is no point in “hiding or sugarcoating” its findings.
It has also said the leak may warrant investigation.
The inquiry also found police had enough evidence to charge Lehrmann with the rape of Higgins, sources say.
That finding does not establish Lehrmann’s guilt or innocence, just that the police and the DPP acted appropriately in bringing charges.
Higgins alleged Lehrmann, a former colleague, raped her in Parliament House in 2019. Lehrmann, who pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent, has always denied the allegation of rape and no findings have been made against him.
Lehrmann was tried by the ACT supreme court in October but a mistrial was declared due to juror misconduct. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against him because of fears about the impact a second trial would have on Higgins’s mental health.
The Australian has published an extensive report about the inquiry’s findings, based on a leaked copy of the report. The reporting suggests that the inquiry found police made mistakes, but that “none of these mistakes actually affected the substance of the investigation and none of them prejudiced the case”.
The Australian Federal Police Association said on Thursday that the reported findings confirmed what the AFPA had suspected.
“We were always confident that the investigating officers had conducted a thorough and professional investigation from day one,” AFPA president, Alex Caruana, said.
“While we haven’t seen the Sofronoff report, nor the recommendations, if the public reports are accurate, it’s clear that ACT policing members conducted a proper and professional investigation. Using the words in the public domain, the investigators performed their duties in absolute good faith, with great determination, although faced with obstacles, and put together a sound case.”
Caruana called on the ACT government to “immediately release the report”, describing it as a welfare issue for all those involved in the inquiry.
“With the report being leaked, the ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, and the ACT attorney general, Shane Rattenbury, should release the report in its entirety. We know that the number of people who received the report was minimal; not even ACT policing had seen the report,” he said. “There is no point in hiding or sugarcoating the information and recommendations. In some cases, it’s clear what needs to occur.
“The ACT government should also consider the possibility of investigating who leaked the report and the option that the ACT chief justice can refer a matter about professional conduct to the Australian federal police for criminal investigation.”
The inquiry was prompted by a letter from Drumgold to police chief, Neil Gaughan, which made serious allegations about police conduct during the investigation and trial of Lehrmann. That letter was obtained through freedom of information laws and first reported by Guardian Australia.
The Australian reported that Sofronoff found the claims in the letter were baseless and that the document was improperly released through FoI, without consulting police and others.
