The Legacy Media FINALLY turn on Brittany Higgins and Shane Drumgold

https://www.abc.net.au/news/20....23-08-03/bruce-lehrm

Bruce Lehrmann inquiry report accuses ACT director of public prosecutions of 'knowingly lying', making 'wholly false' allegations

A report on the prosecution of former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann over the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins has accused the ACT's top prosecutor of "knowingly lying" to the ACT's chief justice.

A report from the board of inquiry — the ACT's equivalent of a royal commission — into the conduct of police and prosecutors during Mr Lehrmann's case was handed to the ACT government on Monday, and has yet to be released publicly.

But the ABC has seen a copy of the report and can confirm damning findings against ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold, including that all of the "scandalous allegations" he made about police, that had led to the inquiry, had been "wholly false and without any rational basis".

When contacted by the ABC, Mr Drumgold said: "Unfortunately, I have neither seen the report, nor have I been informed of any of its contents, so I am not in a position to respond."

Mr Drumgold has been on leave from his position since May, after facing gruelling questioning as part of the inquiry.

In a statement, the ACT government said it was "disappointed" that the inquiry's report had been released to some media outlets by the board of inquiry, saying that was "not authorised by or communicated to the government".

It said, as a result, it would bring forward the public release of the report to early next week.
Drumgold had 'unfair advantage' with Brittany Higgins's counselling notes: report

Nobody who gave evidence at the inquiry submitted that the prosecution should not have gone ahead, and the inquiry, run by former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff KC, found that Mr Drumgold was justified in bringing the prosecution.

In the end, Mr Lehrmann's trial was discontinued and the charges against him were dropped after Mr Drumgold determined that a retrial would pose an unacceptable risk to Ms Higgins's health. Mr Lehrmann has maintained his innocence.

In Mr Sofronoff's final report, he roundly criticised Mr Drumgold.

"It became clear to me that, at times, Mr Drumgold lost objectivity and did not act with fairness and detachment as was required by his role," Mr Sofronoff said in his report to the ACT government.

Mr Sofronoff also criticised Mr Drumgold's management of the case, including decisions about what should have been disclosed to the defence lawyers.

Particular criticism was directed at the way Ms Higgins's counselling notes were dealt with by Mr Drumgold and the police.
Brittany looks down as she walks, her hair blowing in the wind.

During the inquiry, the police were questioned for sending the notes to Mr Lehrmann's original defence lawyer, who immediately returned them unread, realising he had been sent something he should not have received.

At the inquiry, police admitted they had not followed their own usual practices, which would have picked up this mistake.

During the public hearings, it emerged Mr Drumgold had also received the notes from police and had read them.

Mr Sofronoff formed the view that Mr Drumgold did the wrong thing.

"Mr Drumgold should not have read the notes because it placed him in a position in which he may be thought to have significant information about the complainant that was denied to the defence," Mr Sofronoff said in his report.

"Having read the notes, Mr Drumgold was in a position where he held information about the matter that the defence did not. He did not have to tender the notes to use them. His knowledge of what they contained may have been useful in making decisions.

"This was unfair because it gave him a forensic advantage."

Mr Drumgold did accept he should not have read the notes during the inquiry.

Drumgold 'knowingly lied' to chief justice about legal advice given to Wilkinson.

But some of Mr Sofronoff's most strident criticism of Mr Drumgold related to a speech made at the Logie Awards by journalist Lisa Wilkinson.

Wilkinson won a Logie for her interview with Ms Higgins when she first disclosed her allegations of being raped at Parliament House.

ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum, who was hearing the case in the ACT Supreme Court, accused Wilkinson of delivering the speech despite receiving a warning from Mr Drumgold not to do so.

The speech led to a delay in the trial.

Mr Drumgold had presented the court notes of a meeting he had with Wilkinson, where he said she was warned not to give the speech, and told the court the notes were made at the time of the meeting.

But it emerged during the inquiry, that Mr Drumgold had added to the file note the day after the Logies — five days after meeting with Wilkinson.

The inquiry also heard that Wilkinson denied being given a clear warning the trial could be affected by anything she said, and her lawyer asked Mr Drumgold to correct the record.

Mr Sofronoff said he did not accept Mr Drumgold's account.

"I do not accept that Mr Drumgold's misstatements about the nature of the note were a mere mistake that he made," Mr Sofronoff says in the report.

"I find that Mr Drumgold knowingly lied to the chief justice.

"On any version of the conversation, Mr Drumgold's response to Ms Wilkinson was wholly inadequate."

Mr Drumgold did concede during the inquiry that he could have done more to correct the record.
Drumgold formed 'baseless suspicion' that police were trying to sabotage the case: report

Mr Sofronoff also referenced in his report the perceived tensions between police and Mr Drumgold.

"The adverse suspicions that Mr Drumgold formed during his early interactions with the investigators predisposed him to see non-existent malignancy in benign interactions between the police and the defence at the trial," Mr Sofronoff said in the report.

"He saw impropriety in their interactions because he wrongly perceived the 'police had a passion for this prosecution to fail'.

In the letter from Mr Drumgold, which sparked the inquiry, he had also alleged political interference in the investigation, but later withdrew that during the course of the inquiry, after seeing the police submissions.

Mr Sofronoff said in his report that Mr Drumgold had, in his view, developed a "baseless suspicion" that police were interfering and maybe trying to sabotage the case.

But the Sofronoff report also noted that the feelings of mistrust cut both ways.

Mr Sofronoff said that Mr Drumgold had, in his view, mistaken the delay in laying the charge for reluctance, when in fact police were waiting on an internal review that had not been completed because a key person had not been available.

The report also noted police had mistaken Mr Drumgold's inquiry about missing CCTV footage as criticism.

During the inquiry's public hearings, senior police conceded that it had not helped that officers were seen talking to the defence team, and they were worried about the perceptions.

The inquiry heard that Detective Superintendent Scott Moller had held concerns about the strength of the case against Mr Lehrmann, describing Ms Higgins as "evasive", "uncooperative" and "manipulative" in a written assessment, which was tendered.

He later backed down on that, saying he thought the case should proceed when he saw the brief.

But the Sofronoff report has questioned many of the police decisions, including conducting a second interview with Ms Higgins.

Mr Sofronoff said that police should have recognised that the risk to Ms Higgins's health outweighed the minimal investigative value of the exercise.

Another decision to try to interview the ACT's Victims of Crime Commissioner, Heidi Yates, has also been criticised by Mr Sofronoff as having little value.

Ms Yates accompanied Ms Higgins to court each day.

Brittany Higgins walking alongside another woman, with a man walking behind her.

Police acknowledged during the inquiry that despite having criticised her for this, they were aware that she was fulfilling her role under the ACT Victims Support Act.
Report criticises Drumgold's cross-examination of Senator Reynolds

Mr Sofronoff also raised concerns about the way in which Mr Drumgold had dealt with Senator Linda Reynolds during the trial.

Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann both worked in Senator Reynolds's office, where the incident was alleged to have happened.

In his report, Mr Sofronoff was highly critical of Mr Drumgold's cross-examination of Senator Reynolds during the trial.

Mr Drumgold had quizzed the senator in a bid to challenge her credibility.

This included asking her about a text message sent to the defence asking for transcripts of Ms Higgins's testimony to be sent to her lawyers, and the presence of Senator Reynolds's partner in the court, in the days before she gave evidence.

Mr Sofronoff said if Mr Drumgold had wanted to suggest impropriety that needed to be based on evidence.

"There was no evidence that Senator Reynolds's partner had anything to do with the senator's request for the transcript of Ms Higgins's evidence," he said in the report.

"There was no evidence that he had any relevant involvement at all, let alone wrongdoing.

"Mr Drumgold's belief was in other words a speculation."

Mr Drumgold told the inquiry he felt there was sufficient circumstantial evidence that Senator Reynolds's partner was sitting in the inquiry to monitor things.

But Mr Sofronoff suggested Mr Drumgold did not understand the ethical principle of cross-examination.

"His ignorance deeply disturbed me," Mr Sofronoff said in the inquiry report.

Allegations that led to inquiry were 'wholly false and without any rational basis'

Walter Sofronoff's report calls for better prosecution guidelines for police, greater transparency in decisions, and a clearer understanding of the threshold for charging people with sexual offences.(AAP: Dan Peled)

In summing up the findings, Mr Sofronoff took particular aim at the way Mr Drumgold called for the inquiry with the allegations in his letter to the police.

"This inquiry has thoroughly examined the allegations in Mr Drumgold's letter," Mr Sofronoff said.

"Each allegation has been exposed to be baseless.

"Late in giving his oral evidence, Mr Drumgold finally resiled from his scandalous allegations."

Mr Sofronoff said the overall result of Mr Drumgold's allegation had been a public inquiry that had "caused lasting pain to many people, and which has demonstrated his allegations to be, not just incorrect, but wholly false and without any rational basis".

"The cost of a six-month public inquiry — in time and money, in lost work and personal and professional consequences — has been huge," Mr Sofronoff said in his report.

Mr Sofronoff has called for better guidelines for police involved in prosecutions, greater transparency in decisions, and a clearer understanding of the threshold for charging people with sexual offences.

In a statement, Mr Lehrmann said much of the contents of the report had been suspected by his criminal defence team during the trial.

"I owe everything to the lawyers who have surrounded me. This is overwhelming and alarming reading," he said.

"It is credit to Mr Sofronoff and his team for pulling back the covers and exposing what really is a dark chapter for the ACT justice system.

"I will have more to say in due course as the full report is made public by the Chief Minister."
ACT government to bring forward public release of report

The ACT government is yet to release Mr Sofronoff's final report or its response to the findings.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the ACT government said the release of information about the inquiry outside government processes had "affected the inquiry process and harmed people involved".

"The individuals identified in the report and affected by its findings must be afforded procedural fairness, including the Director of Public Prosecutions," the spokeswoman said.

"Following this, the ACT government is preparing to release the report formally along with the government's interim response to the recommendations early next week."

But the ACT opposition is calling on the government to release the report immediately and in full.

"So that there is no risk of any unfounded aspersions being made or being cast against any party or any stakeholder," Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said.

The Australian Federal Police have urged that the report be given to those affected by its findings first, before it is made public.

Posted 3 Aug 2023
3 Aug 2023
, updated 3 Aug 2023