The ACT's top prosecutor has accused sexual assault investigators of abusing his staff and of frequently misapplying the law when deciding whether to lay criminal charges.
This, he believes, has resulted in police pre-emptively terminating "a large number of investigations".
Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC makes the staggering claims in a statement tendered to the inquiry into the trial of Bruce Lehrmann on Monday.
Describing the situation as a "deterioration in the relationship" between his office and the Australian Federal Police, Mr Drumgold indicates his concerns date back to October 2021.
That month, he told the Attorney-General he believed the police sexual assault and child abuse team had been "erroneously applying the test of whether a matter had a reasonable prospect of conviction".
Mr Drumgold said he was informed his views would be communicated to the Police Minister, who would in turn relay them to the force.
"In my view the relationship between the DPP and the AFP ... deteriorated at around the time of these interactions," Mr Drumgold wrote in his statement.
He detailed how two of his senior prosecutors, Skye Jerome and Andrew Chatterton, conducted legal training in November 2021 for the sexual assault and child abuse team.
Mr Drumgold said sessions of this sort had been a regular occurrence for some years.
"On this occasion the police in attendance had been very confrontational and occasionally abusive towards my staff over a number of issues, one of which was charging decisions," he wrote.
"Skye Jerome informed me that an officer ... had said words to the effect, 'It doesn't matter what she says, police will decide when to charge'."
According to the statement, Ms Jerome told Mr Drumgold she had found this interaction "traumatic".
"I felt staff welfare must be put ahead of training and made [the] decision to withdraw my staff from training SACAT investigators until we received an explanation for the abusive behaviour towards my staff, as well as an undertaking that it would not occur again," Mr Drumgold wrote.
"Training was suspended for a year."
Mr Drumgold said he had only decided in December 2022 that training would recommence in the new year.
He did so after speaking to an off-duty member of the specialist police unit at a cocktail party, where he was "comforted" by the officer's comments about the future.
Despite this, Mr Drumgold says he continues to see instances where police are "applying the incorrect test with respect to whether a charge should be laid".
He indicated he had raised his concerns last December with Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan, the ACT's chief police officer, who seemed "unconvinced" of the issue.
The situation had not improved since, in his mind, despite Deputy Commissioner Gaughan undertaking to explore his views.
"As recently as early 2023, Skye Jerome informed me that the AFP had developed a test for charging, that whilst I cannot recall the specific wording, I recall drawing the view that it was completely unworkable and unsupported by any legislation or legal authority," he said.
Mr Drumgold is currently giving evidence at the inquiry into the prosecution of Mr Lehrmann, a former political staffer whose criminal case was abandoned late last year.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied raping Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in 2019, when the pair worked together for the Liberal Party.
The inquiry is examining the conduct of Mr Drumgold, police and ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates in connection with the high-profile case.
The territory's top prosecutor, who was at odds with police on whether Mr Lehrmann's case should proceed to trial, claims investigators "cherry-picked" and "mischaracterised" evidence while outlining their concerns about Ms Higgins' claims.
Mr Drumgold is the inquiry's first witness, with police expected to give evidence in the coming weeks.
