Top prosecutor mulled charging Lehrmann himself, inquiry told
ACT top prosecutor Shane Drumgold, SC, pondered circumventing police to charge Bruce Lehrmann himself during the Parliament House rape investigation, according to a top justice official who gave evidence to a probe into the criminal trial.
The airing of the Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates’ written statement to the ACT inquiry follows a dramatic fortnight in parliament that has led to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying he would be comfortable if one former Liberal senator accused of sexual misconduct didn’t return.
ACT top prosecutor Shane Drumgold pondered charging Bruce Lehrmann himself, the territory’s victims advocate says.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
In response to persistent Coalition attacks over Labor’s knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ rape complaint, Foreign Minister Penny Wong also highlighted the former Liberal staffer’s fragile mental health that led to Drumgold scrapping the case against Lehrmann in December last year.
According to Yates’ statement to the inquiry, published earlier this month, the Director of Public Prosecutions allegedly told Yates he was thinking of going around ACT detectives more than a month before the charge was laid.
Yates’ statement says she met with Drumgold at a Canberra cafe on June 30, 2021, where she claims he said words to the effect of: “I’ve seen the brief. This is a straightforward ‘he said, she said’ matter. You know, a straightforward matter ... I don’t know why this matter is not progressing. I could consider using my ex-officio powers to lay a charge if the police don’t.”
Comment has been sought from Drumgold, whose lawyer in the inquiry, Mark Tedeschi KC declined to comment when contacted by this masthead. However, former NSW DPP Nicholas Cowdery KC said it was “exceedingly rare for a DPP to lay an indictable charge in the absence of any charge by police”.
Cowdery said he had resorted to it once in his 16-year tenure but otherwise hadn’t heard of it being used in any jurisdiction in Australia.
“Ordinarily in cases where there is a difference of view between police and prosecutors, there will be discussions between them, which will usually lead to a resolution that is acceptable to both. So it’s very unusual for a DPP to be put into a situation of having to make a unilateral decision.”
In August 2021, ACT Policing detectives charged Lehrmann, a former Coalition staffer, with sexually assaulting Higgins, his former colleague, in the ministerial office of their then-boss, Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, in March 2019.
Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to the charge and the trial was aborted due to juror misconduct in October last year, before Drumgold dropped the case against Lehrmann because of Higgins’ mental health. Lehrmann has maintained his innocence.
Drumgold took leave from his role after giving evidence in the public inquiry into the handling of the case earlier last month, and was due to return on June 13 before extending his leave until the end of this month.
The circumstances surrounding Higgins’ highly publicised allegation in February 2021 have been scrutinised over recent weeks after leaked text messages between her and her partner David Sharaz were published by The Australian.
During an interview with KIIS FM radio station on Tuesday morning, Albanese described the leaking of personal messages as “really regrettable, as well as not being legal”.
Albanese said he was concerned that women with allegations of sexual assault would not come forward due to recent media coverage of the issue.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he would be comfortable if Van didn’t return to parliament.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“There’s something like 13 per cent of sexual assaults in Australia are reported to police,” he said. “And that is a terrible figure. A terrible figure.”
The Coalition used the text messages to pursue Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, after she was purportedly named by Sharaz as having been told of the allegation before Higgins went public.
The questioning prompted independent senator Lidia Thorpe to accuse senator David Van of harassment and sexual assault – claims he strongly denies – but which led to him being booted to the crossbench and resigning from the Liberal Party after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton spoke of two other complaints against him.
Albanese said he had never heard of Van – without naming him specifically – before the allegations.
“I’d be very comfortable if he never returned to the Senate,” he said.
“Our workplace hasn’t been good enough in the past, we know, because of the accusation that was made in 2019 about an alleged sexual assault in a minister’s office, but also the revelations that ended up coming out of last week, about allegations about the behaviour of one of the Victorian senators.”
The opposition has continued its pursuit of Gallagher this week. Rising in defence of her cabinet colleague, Wong told Senate question time on Tuesday that Gallagher “has answered question after question on this and has been upfront and transparent with the Senate”.
“We are now at the point where the opposition, in their desperate attempt to continue this tactic, despite what the DPP [ACT Director of Public Prosecutions] has said about Ms Higgins’ mental state at the conclusion of her trial,” Wong said.
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