The inquiry into the handling of the Bruce Lehrmann case has been handed $4.3m to conduct its work and has signalled it will hold as much of its hearings in public as possible.
The inquiry head, former judge Walter Sofronoff KC, will also be supported by the Queensland silk Erin Longbottom KC and barrister Joshua Jones as senior and junior counsel assisting.
The inquiry was called following a bombshell letter, revealed by the Guardian, in which the director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, alleged police had attempted to pressure him against running the case and later sided with the defence during the high-profile trial.
The police chief, Neil Gaughan, later supported Drumgold’s call for a public inquiry, but wanted it to also examine “the prosecution and defence, issues leading to delays in the trial, issues leading to the subsequent mistrial, the decision not to proceed and the associated allegations of contempt of court”.
The terms of reference give the inquiry a broad remit to examine the conduct of both police and prosecutors and any motives that may lie behind misconduct. The inquiry’s website, which is live but incomplete, shows it intends to hold as much of its hearings in public as possible.
“Hearings will be open to the public (unless closed by the Inquiry for specific matters pursuant to section 21(3) of the Inquiries Act 1991),” the website says.
The ACT government has separately confirmed that it has budgeted $4.3m to fund the probe, which will in part pay for the inquiry head, counsel assisting and “an inquiry executive director and other staff as required”.
The last major board of inquiry conducted in the ACT – the inquiry into the conviction of David Eastman – cost $12m, though the government also paid the legal costs of various parties, including Legal Aid, which represented Eastman.
News Corp reported on Friday that the inquiry into the handling of the Lehrmann case has begun issuing subpoenas, including to police, prosecutors and the ACT Bar Association.
Longbottom will act as the inquiry’s senior counsel assisting. She recently appeared as a counsel assisting the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide.
Jones, the junior counsel assisting, recently worked with Sofronoff on the inquiry into forensic DNA testing in Queensland.
Lehrmann was accused of raping fellow political staffer Brittany Higgins on a couch in the office of their then boss, cabinet minister Linda Reynolds. Lehrmann consistently denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty.
His trial collapsed after a lengthy period of jury deliberations due to juror misconduct. A retrial did not proceed due to prosecutors’ concerns about Higgins’ mental health.
Following the collapse of the trial, public reporting has suggested a bitter relationship between police and prosecutors working on the case. Drumgold’s letter, obtained under freedom of information laws by the Guardian, showed that he wrote to Gaughan following the collapse of the trial, calling for a public inquiry into the actions of police.
“There has now been over one-and-a-half years of consistent and inappropriate interference by investigators, firstly directed towards my independence with a very clear campaign to pressure me to agree with the investigators’ desire not to charge, then during the conduct of this trial itself, and finally attempting to influence any decision on a retrial,” Drumgold wrote.
The DPP has since been the subject of complaints to the ACT Bar Association, including one from Lehrmann, which alleged professional misconduct. Details of the complaint, and another complaint from Reynolds’ former chief of staff Fiona Brown, were subsequently published by the Australian.
