- Walter Sofronoff made 55 calls to a columnist from The Australian
- Phone calls were made during the investigation into the rape case against Bruce Lehrmann
- Ex-ACT DPP Shane Drumgold claims Mr Sofronoff was biased
Dozens of hours of phone calls and months of communications between journalists and the chair of an investigation into the ACT’s former chief prosecutor are being used in court to argue the investigation chief was biased.
Former Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold is taking legal action against former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff over his findings in an investigation into the handling of the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann.
Mr Sofronoff was in constant contact with Australian newspaper columnist Janet Albrechtsen before and during his investigation, Mr Drumgold’s lawyer Dan O’Gorman told the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Mr. Sofronoff made 65 calls to journalists between February and July 2023, totaling nearly 10 hours, Mr. O’Gorman said, citing phone records.
Of these, 55 were for people from The Australian – mainly Ms Albrechtsen – for a total of seven and a half hours, he said.
Walter Sofronoff called Janet Albrechtsen (photo) – columnist for The Australian – 55 times
Walter Sofronoff (photo) led the commission of inquiry into the rape trial of Bruce Lehrmann
During the inquiry’s public hearing, Mr Sofronoff made 10 calls to The Australian, eight of which were to Ms Albrechtsen, the court was told.
Mr O’Gorman is trying to use text messages, phone records and emails between the journalist and the head of the investigation to prove he was biased against Mr Drumgold.
Confidential documents – including the draft report – were handed over to journalists when they should not have been, O’Gorman said.
“Ms. Albrechtsen has received confidential information regarding Mr. Sofronoff’s investigation and terms of investigation,” he argued.
‘This is in the context where Ms Albrechtsen displayed an attitude hostile to Mr Drumgold for a number of months.
‘In the months leading up to and during the investigation, Ms Albrechtsen wrote numerous critical articles about Mr Drumgold.’
Mr Sofronoff had gone against his own media code of practice for the investigation by contacting journalists directly, Mr O’Gorman argued.
Other journalists have contacted the investigative committee through official channels, he said.
Shane Drumgold (pictured) stepped down as ACT director of public prosecutions following the Soronoff inquiry last year
Brittany Higgins is pictured in France with her fiancé David Sharaz. Ms. Higgins alleged that Bruce Lehrmann raped her. He strongly denies the allegations
Lawyers for Mr Sofronoff and the ACT government raised concerns that parts of the evidence were inadmissible because it was not relevant to the case and would amount to hearsay.
Judge Stephen Kaye has yet to decide whether the evidence is admissible and whether Mr Sofronoff can be cross-examined.
But he warned Mr Drumgold’s team against using the case as a “fishing expedition”.
“This is not an investigation into the investigation, this is strictly a judicial review on very limited administrative law grounds,” he said.
Mr. Sofronoff’s investigation into Mr. Drumgold’s prosecution of Mr. Lehrmann found that he lost his objectivity and lied to the chief justice.
But the decision to charge and prosecute Mr. Lehrmann was the right thing to do.
The judicial review does not focus on the merits of the Sofronoff investigation’s findings, but rather on whether they were arrived at in the correct legal manner.
The case will go to trial on February 13.