Inquiry chair and former Queensland Supreme Court judge Walter Sofronoff communicated extensively with The Australian journalist Janet Albrechtsen before and during the inquiry into Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial for allegedly raping Brittany Higgins.
It was this communication that allegedly “poisoned his mind” against former ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shane Drumgold, who had made several complaints about the police’s handling of the rape allegations while he prosecuted Mr Lehrmann.
In a report released in August last year, Mr Sofronoff made “several serious findings of misconduct” against Mr Drumgold and claimed there had been an “egregious abuse” of the DPP position.
Shortly after he resigned, Mr Drumgold launched legal action in the ACT Supreme Court to challenge Mr Sofronoff’s findings.
The court was told that while Mr Drumgold was in the witness box, Mr Sofronoff and Ms Albrechtsen were in contact 13 times.
Mr O’Gorman alleged no other journalist “had the privilege of such communications” with Mr Sofronoff during this time.
Mr O’Gorman said he also had evidence of Mr Sofronoff “volunteering” information about the inquiry in circumstances where Ms Albrechtsen had not asked, including sending her a list of witnesses and their scheduled time to appear.
There was also the “disturbing feature” of Mr Sofronoff and Ms Albrechtsen communicating across four different email addresses.
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