Brittany Higgins says the police officers who handled her alleged rape complaint were “awful” and made her “feel violated at every turn”, the latest development to the ugly fallout from Walter Sofronoff’s inquiry into Bruce Lehrmann’s prosecution.
The former Liberal staffer’s comments were made in response to an article in The Australian that claimed officers who investigated the complaint had their careers ruined by false claims of police interference during the case made by ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shane Drumgold.
That claim was rubbished by Higgins, who claimed in her first public statement since the report was released that in her view the officers were “disgraced by their conduct, not the DPP”.
“These police never wanted to charge my (accused) rapist despite the fact that no one, not even the defence, made an application contending that the prosecution was not properly commenced,” she said in a statement.
Higgins highlighted that Sofronoff found officers had differing understandings of the ACT’s threshold for charging someone with rape, including one who admitted hers was incorrect, before saying the officers’ conduct made her feel violated.
“They wrongly handed over my most private thoughts taken over years in counselling sessions at the Rape Crisis Centre to (the) defence,” she said.
“These men were absolutely awful to me. They made me feel violated at every turn.
“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 (evidence in chief) interview.
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“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.
“I do not celebrate the misfortune of others. However, these officers were disgraced by their conduct not by the DPP.”
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Lehrmann’s trial was aborted after juror misconduct without any finding being made against him, and a re-trial was discontinued due to concerns for Higgins’ wellbeing.
Lehrmann pleaded not guilty and has always maintained his innocence.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
