The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shane Drumgold has been replaced in the position while an inquiry into the handling of the Bruce Lehrmann case continues.
On Tuesday, the ACT government executive appointed Anthony Williamson SC — the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions — to act in the position until June 13.
Mr Drumgold has been under pressure in questioning at the board of inquiry, which is examining how the criminal case against Mr Lehrmann, for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins at Parliament House, was handled by criminal justice agencies.
Mr Lehrmann's trial was aborted due to juror misconduct last year, and a planned re-trial was later abandoned over concerns about Ms Higgins's mental health.
Mr Lehrmann has maintained his innocence and there have been no findings against him after the criminal trial was abandoned.
The inquiry will resume hearings next week, with police expected to give evidence.
The ABC has sought clarification from the inquiry about whether Mr Drumgold will return in the coming weeks to finalise his testimony.
'Business as usual': Attorney-General
ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury this morning confirmed Mr Drumgold was on leave and said he expected him to return to the role in the middle of June.
"The government's been advised that he's on leave for four weeks, which is also why we've needed to make an appointment of somebody to fill that role during that period," Mr Rattenbury said.
"He sought leave, it came from him as a request."
Mr Rattenbury said he did not expect the replacement would have any significant impact on the office of public prosecutions.
"The deputy director has been appointed and he's a very experienced prosecutor. He's well-known in the office. He's got all the suitable qualifications to fill this role."
"It's business as usual," Mr Rattenbury said.
Mr Drumgold has been a prosecutor for the ACT DPP since 2002 and had been in the role of the territory chief prosecutor for the past four years.
Apologies and concessions in Drumgold's evidence
The inquiry was sparked by a letter Mr Drumgold sent to the ACT's chief police officer, alleging political interference and questioning police conduct during the prosecution.
However, last week during the inquiry Mr Drumgold admitted that he no longer suspected political interference in the prosecution of Mr Lehrmann, after reading the submissions to the inquiry.
Documents filed to the inquiry also revealed that Mr Drumgold had apologised to police for releasing the letter to the media, without consultation.
In a statement tendered to the inquiry, Mr Drumgold said he made the apology after a report from the ombudsman about the letter being released under freedom of information laws, without redacting the names of individual officers.
The apology letter has since been redacted from the inquiry website.
The question of political interference
The inquiry heard Mr Drumgold had previously suspected political interference in the case after Senator Reynolds sought transcripts of Ms Higgins's testimony from Mr Lehrmann's lawyer, in an exchange where she also alerted the defence to a possible line of inquiry.
Mr Drumgold said Senator Reynolds's engagement with the case and the "passion" he said police had shown for Mr Lehrmann to be acquitted led him to consider the prospect of outside influence.
But he later told the inquiry that the concerns he had with the police's conduct were "most likely a skills deficit", after he reviewed the officers' statements to the inquiry.
And he admitted that when he raised the issue of political interference he had already formed the view that there was no interference.
While giving his evidence to the inquiry this week, Mr Lehrmann's barrister, Steve Whybrow, said that he was angered by Mr Drumgold's accusation that he colluded with Senator Linda Reynolds during the trial.
Mr Whybrow told the inquiry to suggest Senator Reynolds had interfered with the case was "an appalling mischaracterisation" on behalf of Mr Drumgold.
Drumgold's comments outside court criticised
While announcing that the charge against Mr Lehrmann would be dropped and a retrial would not go ahead, Mr Drumgold said Ms Higgins had "faced a level of personal attack" that he had "not seen in over 20 years of doing this work".
He also said that he had "a clear view that there was a reasonable prospect of conviction" in the by-then-abandoned case.
All of those comments were this week criticised by Mr Whybrow when he gave evidence to the board of inquiry.
"He did not need to say that. It conveyed that [Mr Lehrmann] was really guilty in his view," Mr Whybrow told the inquiry.
Mr Whybrow also said Mr Drumgold's comment about Ms Higgins's conduct during the trial of "bravery, grace and dignity" was an overreach.
Lisa Wilkinson's Logies speech
While being questioned about another matter, Mr Drumgold conceded to the inquiry that he should have done more to correct media reporting about journalist Lisa Wilkinson's speech to the Logies ahead of the trial of Mr Lehrmann.
Ms Wilkinson spoke at the Logie awards in June last year upon winning the award for most outstanding news coverage or public affairs report for her role in the reporting of Ms Higgins's allegations.
The speech was reported and discussed on radio, and subsequently triggered a delay in proceedings.
Media reports at the time claimed Wilkinson had been given a clear direction not to give the speech, which she disputes.
Last week, Wilkinson's lawyer Sue Chrysanthou referred Mr Drumgold to a letter sent to Chief Justice Lucy McCallum the day after the trial was delayed.
"This was the opportunity, wasn't it, in court to correct what was being said about my client, which was something you knew to not be true?" Ms Chrysanthou asked.
"I now accept that," Mr Drumgold replied.
The inquiry into the handling of the case is slated to report back to the ACT government by the end of July.
