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Brittany Higgins has launched an attack against the attitudes of the police who investigated her rape claim against her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann, claiming they were disgraced by their own conduct rather than the accusations of former director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold, SC.
In a social media post on Wednesday referencing a story in The Australian about the toll the abandoned Lehrmann case and the subsequent inquiry had on police, Higgins reignited a range of accusations against the behaviour of detectives that were canvassed in the probe, including making a folder of “unfounded claims” to discredit her.
Brittany Higgins has attacked the conduct of police who were assigned to investigate her rape complaint.Credit: Rhett Wyman
“These men were absolutely awful to me. They made me feel violated at every turn,” Higgins said in the social media post.
“They cast judgements about the merits of my advocacy and regularly reiterated the reasons why they thought that I shouldn’t proceed with pressing charges.”
Drumgold, who resigned last week after damning findings against his own conduct in the case, sparked the inquiry after writing to ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan in November about his belief that detectives were pressuring him against prosecuting Lehrmann.
Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins, his former colleague, in the Parliament House office of their then-boss, former Coalition minister Linda Reynolds, after a night out drinking with friends in March 2019.
The trial was aborted in October due to juror misconduct and a retrial was abandoned over concerns about Higgins’ mental health, with the charge dropped. Lehrmann maintains his innocence and is preparing to sue the ACT government over the prosecution.
The case’s lead investigator, ACT Policing Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, told the inquiry he had warned Higgins against doing media interviews as it could damage the trial. He said that while he was eventually convinced by Drumgold of the need to charge Lehrmann, the other officers in his team remained unconvinced.
“These police never wanted to charge [Lehrmann] despite the fact that no one, not even the defence, made an application contending that the prosecution was not properly commenced,” she said.
“They made a fun folder full of unfounded claims in a literal attempt to discredit me as a permissible rape victim to the office of the DPP.”
The Moller report, which was tendered to the inquiry, contained police opinions that Higgins was an evasive and manipulative witness, which Drumgold had likened to police judging a complainant for wearing a mini-skirt.
She also said they wrongly handed her private counselling notes to the defence team, which police admitted to and said should never have been done. Inquiry chair Walter Sofronoff said this was not done intentionally.
“I will always remember how small I felt having five senior police officers I’ve never met in a room belittling me – after I had just spent hours giving evidence in a second EIC [evidence in chief] interview,” Higgins said, referring to a meeting in which Moller told her the investigation would’ve been “for nothing” if it fell over due to media interference.
“I do not celebrate the misfortune of others. However, these officers were disgraced by their own conduct, not by the DPP.”
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