The ACT’s former top prosecutor has successfully challenged findings made by an inquiry on Bruce Lehrmann’s trial.
The conduct of a former judge who headed an inquiry into Mr Lehrmann’s rape trial gave rise to “a reasonable intention of bias”, a court heard on Monday.
In 2023, former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff was tasked with examining the role of police and prosecutors in relation to the high-profile trial.
Though the inquiry’s final report vindicated investigating officers, it found the Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold had engaged in malpractice and unethical conduct.
Mr Drumgold launched legal action in August to invalidate the adverse findings against him, with his lawyers claiming Mr Sofronoff’s communications with The Australian‘s columnist Janet Albrechsten had “infected” him with bias.
And on Monday, Justice Stephen Kaye noted that Mr Sofronoff’s behaviour “gave rise to a reasonable intention of bias”.
“The communications that took place … was such that a fair minded observer might reasonably have apprehended that (Mr Sofronoff) might have been influenced by the views held and publicly expressed by Ms Albrechtsen,” he told the ACT Supreme Court.
Justice Kaye upheld seven of the eight inquiry findings Mr Drumgold disagreed with, but said its accusations that the prosecutor had engaged in “grossly unethical conduct” during the cross-examination of Senator Linda Reynolds was “legally unreasonable”.
The inquiry was launched after police and prosecutors made claims about each other’s conduct during the trial of former political staffer Mr Lehrmann.
In 2019, Mr Lehrmann was accused of raping his then-colleague Brittany Higgins inside the Parliament House office of Senator Reynolds.
But his 2022 ACT Supreme Court trial was abandoned due to jury misconduct and a retrial dismissed over concerns about Ms Higgins’ health, leaving no findings against him.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegation.
Mr Drumgold resigned in August after the release of Mr Sofronoff’s report.
On Friday, the ACT government apologised and paid former defence minister Linda Reynolds $90,000 after Mr Drumgold accused the senator of “disturbing” conduct in a letter of complaint to the Australian Federal Police.
“The other findings made by the Board of Inquiry, including those in relation to ACT Policing and the Victim of Crimes Commissioner, are not altered by this decision,” an ACT Government spokesperson said.
“The recommendations from the Board of Inquiry are not impacted by this decision.
“Those recommendations offer a practical and pragmatic way forward for the ACT criminal justice system.
“This decision has no bearing on the settlement reached with Senator Linda Reynolds last week in relation to defamation proceedings commenced by her.”
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By Kat Wong in Canberra
