HEADLINED “Trial treachery: the lies of unethical Drumgold”, “The Australian” has splashed the findings of the suppressed Sofronoff Inquiry, claiming the ACT’s chief prosecutor engaged in serious malpractice and grossly unethical conduct and broke the “golden rule” in the Higgins-Lehrmann rape case.

On Monday, Chief Minister Andrew Barr accepted Commissioner Walter Sofronoff’s 600-page report into the management of last year’s abandoned rape case of Bruce Lehrmann after weeks of public testimony, but refused to release the report saying it would be considered “through a proper cabinet process” that would take three to four weeks, with the Legislative Assembly “updated” at the end of ­August. “The Australian’s” powerful exclusive leaves the chief minister looking impotent.

“The Australian” reports that Commissioner Walter Sofronoff KC ruled that every one of the allegations made by Shane Drumgold that sparked the inquiry was baseless. The paper’s comprehensive coverage  says the findings are certain to end Mr Drumgold’s career as ACT Director of Public Prosecutions and may lead to criminal prosecution against him for perverting the course of justice.

Drumgold has been on leave since May and is not due to return until the end of August.

The paper doesn’t disclose where it got the report, but says Mr Sofronoff found that Mr Drumgold had lost objectivity during the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019 and “did not act with fairness and detachment as was required by his role”.

The ACT government received Mr Sofronoff’s report on Monday but Mr Barr has refused to publicly release the findings until the end of the month, as senior officials pore over the 600-page document.

Mr Sofronoff is quoted as saying he was “deeply disturbed” by Mr Drumgold’s ignorance of ethical principles and accused him of a “Pilate-like detachment”, invoking the moment Pontius Pilate washed his hands of Jesus’s fate, letting the mob decide who should be ­crucified.

The paper lists among “the astonishing catalogue of misconduct and dishonesty” found by the inquiry against Mr Drumgold:

• That he made representations to the Chief Justice Lucy McCallum in the proceedings against Mr Lehrmann that were “untrue” and “an invention of his own”;
• That he was guilty of a “serious breach of duty” by failing to comply with the “golden rule” of disclosure that sits at the heart of a fair trial by failing to disclose documents where there was “simply no doubt” that those police investigation documents should have been disclosed;
• That the DPP failed to adopt the rule of thumb used by wise and experienced prosecutors – “if in doubt, disclose”;
• That the DPP “kept the defence in the dark about the steps he was taking to deny them the documents that meant they were in no position to mount a challenge”;
• And that he “constructed a false narrative to support a claim of legal professional privilege”.

“The result has been a public inquiry, which was not justified by any of his allegations, that has caused lasting pain to many people and which has demonstrated his allegations to be not just incorrect, but wholly false and without any rational basis,” Mr Sofronoff is quoted as saying.

“The cost of a six-month public inquiry – in time and money, in lost work, and personal and professional consequences – has been huge,” he said.

Even if Mr Drumgold had succeeded in dishonestly preventing Mr Lehrmann from obtaining ­material that could have helped his defence, any conviction would have been set aside on the ground of a miscarriage of justice, Mr ­Sofronoff concluded.

Meanwhile, the ACT will be bracing for a threatened multimillion-dollar claim for compensation against the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions from Bruce Lehrmann.

Earlier, Mr Lehrmann had said that if the report “finds the director acted with malice or against his duties as DPP and as an officer of the court, I will be considering a multimillion claim for damages and compensation from the ODPP and the ACT government”.

At the weekend Lehrmann had posted on social media frustration at the prospect at the report not being made immediately public: “Absolute disgrace! I remember someone saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant… The Drumgold protection racket continues. The chief minister should hang his head in shame.”

No reasonable reason to delay Sofronoff Inquiry findings