The ACT’s top prosecutor was right to proceed against former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann based on the information available despite several findings of misconduct, an inquiry into the case has found.
A board of inquiry has revealed poor choices by individuals along the way, fuelled by media scrutiny and political attention on the high-profile case.
The inquiry — chaired by former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff — was set up to examine accusations from police and prosecutors about each other’s conduct during Lehrmann’s rape trial.
Brittany Higgins accused Lehrmann, her former colleague, of raping her inside a ministerial office at Parliament House after a night out in 2019.
Lehrmann has always denied the allegation.
The ACT government released the 839-page report in full on Monday along with its response, after Sofronoff provided the document to select media outlets without authorisation.
A key finding was that it was appropriate to prosecute the Lehrmann case on the information available to ACT Policing and director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold.
But several recommendations related to improving police policies, including defining the threshold required to charge a suspect, updates to how police store victim counselling notes and training on compiling evidence briefs.
The government has agreed to eight of the 10 recommendations and in principle to the final two, subject to further consultation.
ACT attorney-general Shane Rattenbury said the report should be a wake-up call for police and prosecutors.
He said the two needed to ensure they could work together.
“(The recommendations) provide very practical and concrete steps for us to implement that will improve the justice system here in the ACT and seek to avoid the issues … identified as potential weaknesses in the system,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Rattenbury said the government had no evidence of similar mistakes in other cases which could have prejudiced criminal proceedings.
“It found instances of poor individual behaviour and poor choices compounded by a heightened media and political environment.”
Chief minister Andrew Barr said despite the circumstances surrounding its early release, the government was confident in the report.
“The recommendations … provide practical ways the government and these institutions can ensure the matters raised in the trial do not occur in the future.”
Sofronoff made several serious findings of misconduct against Drumgold including that it had become clear he had lost objectivity and did not act with fairness and detachment as was required.
“Mr Drumgold kept the defence in the dark about steps he was taking to deny them … documents,” the report said.
“Criminal litigation is not a poker game in which a prosecutor can hide the cards.”
He also found Mr Drumgold knowingly lied to the ACT chief justice about the nature of a note about a meeting with broadcaster Lisa Wilkinson and a speech she later made when she won a Logie for her interview with Ms Higgins.
While Drumgold accepted his conduct was less than perfect, he rejected many of the adverse findings against him.
On Sunday, he announced he would resign from the role of director of public prosecutions.
“While I acknowledge I made mistakes, I strongly dispute that I engaged in deliberate or underhanded conduct in the trial or that I was dishonest,” he said in a statement.
In October 2022, Lehrmann faced a criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court but juror misconduct derailed the proceedings and the trial was discontinued.
Drumgold ultimately dropped the prosecution against Lehrmann, fearing the impact of a second trial on Higgins’ mental health.
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