The jurisdiction of the ACT where Brittany Higgins reported her alleged rape in parliament house was the worst in Australia at laying charges over alleged sexual assaults, an inquiry in Canberra has heard.
Under cross-examination at the inquiry into the justice system’s handling of the allegation against Bruce Lehrmann, ACT police’s Det Supt Scott Moller was on Wednesday interrogated over a 2021 report that showed the ACT laid charges over alleged sexual assaults at a rate six times lower than the national average.
Moller – who in evidence revealed himself to be a survivor of sexual assault - was also forced to defend himself against allegations of bias after the inquiry heard he liked a post on social media that said “Mr Lehrmann is innocent until proven otherwise”.
The 2021 report by the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Steering Committee shows that based on 2020 figures, only 2.8% of sexual assault investigations in the ACT had resulted in charges being laid against an offender after 30 days, compared with the national average of 17.4%.
Sexual assaults were also charged at a lower rate than other assaults in the ACT. After 30 days, 19.9% of assault allegations had resulted in charges being laid, compared with the 2.8% for sexual assaults.
And the percentage of sexual assault offences reported that resulted in charges being laid at all had decreased significantly over the decade to 2021, when Higgins laid her complaint, from 28% to just 7%.
“Sexual violence offences remain under-reported, under-charged and under-prosecuted in the ACT,” the report said.
Mark Tedeschi KC, acting for the ACT director of public prosecutions, cross-examined Moller about the report and ACT police’s comparatively low rate of charging sex offences, arguing during the inquiry that the statistics reflected “undercharging” by ACT police officers for sexual offences.
“Do you agree that at the time Ms Higgins brought her complaint against Mr Lehrmann to the police in 2021 that the ACT police were undercharging suspects in sex cases, compared to the charging of non-sexual assaults?” Tedeschi asked.
“Absolutely not,” Moller replied.
“The team that work on sex assault cases are a dedicated, professional group of investigators. Absolutely not, in my experience, is that accurate.”
Moller said he rejected the findings of the report and said the ACT figures were skewed by it being a small jurisdiction.
He said sexual assault investigations resulted in charges less often than other assaults because sex crimes were investigated by a specialist team of a limited number of officers.
In his statement to the inquiry, Moller said ACT police’s “Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team (SACAT) has continually suffered from a high workload, reduced staffing levels, inexperienced investigators and a lack of training”.
He told the inquiry on Wednesday that the investigators were “very young, inexperienced officers”. He described SACAT as a “training ground … for budding detectives” and said investigations were often run by “very young officers … with minimal or less-than-ideal direction from a senior officer”.
Moller said he was aware that some ACT sexual assault allegations that had, initially, not resulted in charges being laid had been subsequently reviewed and sent back to police for reinvestigation.
In the witness box for a third day, Moller was cross-examined about a social media post he liked in December last year, after Lehrmann’s trial was aborted.
On his LinkedIn profile, which lists him as detective superintendent in the Australian federal police, Moller liked a post, written by another person, which said: “Mr Lerhmann is innocent until proven otherwise.”
“I was deeply shocked by some of the prosecutors’ reported words. This young man deserves the justice of our court and reporting system. He should not be negatively labelled for the rest of his life,” the post said.
Under cross-examination from Tedeschi, Moller denied the post demonstrated a lack of objectivity.
“Do you agree this shows a bias in favour of Mr Lehrmann?” Tedeschi asked.
“No, I don’t agree with that. I liked the comment. I agreed with the comment,” Moller replied.
“In hindsight, and on reflection, I shouldn’t have liked the comment.”
In finishing his evidence to the inquiry, Moller said members of the investigating team held “deeply seated views” that there was insufficient evidence to charge and prosecute Lehrmann.
However, he said, on taking advice from the DPP that Lehrmann should be charged, investigators followed those directions.
“They still did it, and they were committed to the process, because that’s what we do as police. I’m proud of them.”
Moller said his commitment to assist victims of sexual crime was born of his own experience.
“I’m a survivor: 45 years ago I was a victim of sexual assault and I’ve lived with that,” Moller said.
“That has driven my desire to work in the police and to work with victims in community-based policing specifically.”
Higgins alleged her former Liberal party colleague Lehrmann raped her in a minister’s office in Parliament House in March 2019.
Lehrmann, who pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent, has always denied the allegation of rape and no findings have been made against him.
He was tried in the ACT supreme court last year but a mistrial was declared after juror misconduct. A planned retrial was abandoned after expert medical advice warned it posed a “significant and unacceptable risk” to Higgins’s mental health and her life.
The independent board of inquiry was established to investigate the ACT criminal justice system’s handling of the case, after numerous complaints of irregularities.
The inquiry, before former Queensland solicitor general Walter Sofronoff, continues.
