Critics call for Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling to be removed from rape cases audit

The state’s chief prosecutor should be removed from an audit of hundreds of rape cases set for trial this year being undertaken after repeated criticism the office is pushing ‘meritless prosecutions’, critics say.

The state’s chief prosecutor should be removed from an audit of hundreds of rape cases set for trial this year being undertaken after repeated criticism the office is pushing ‘meritless prosecutions’, critics say.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling announced she will carry out an audit of up to 400 rape cases to ensure they had reasonable prospects of conviction, after criticism by NSW District Court judges that her office is running ‘flimsy cases’.

But One Nation MP Tania Mihailuk said the audit should be conducted independently and not overseen by Ms Dowling, or there was no point to it.

“How can there be any objectivity with this self-audit? There is absolutely no transparency or accountability about this,” Ms Mihailuk said.

“In what world would junior lawyers adversely critique a direction given to them by senior management.”

Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling.

One Nation MP Tania Mihailuk. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

It took a jury less than an hour of deliberations to find former Wallaby Kurtley Beale not guilty of raping a woman in the bathroom of a Bondi pub in 2022.

Senior legal sources claim there were concerns among prosecutors about that cases proceeding to trial.

International cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka, 32, was acquitted late last year of raping a Tinder date by allegedly removing his condom without her consent.

Kurtley Beale during his trial earlier this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Presiding Judge Sarah Huggett said during a costs hearing that she had “significant concerns” about the prosecution’s case.

“I’m firmly of the opinion that if the prosecution had, before the proceedings were instituted, been in possession of evidence and all the relevant facts, it would not have been reasonable to institute the proceedings,” Judge Huggett said.

A senior legal source told The Daily Telegraph there was an “atmosphere of fear” within the DPP, and that morale was low amid the media attention on weak cases.

The source said that more than 30 Crown prosecutors – about a quarter of all prosecutors – had recently applied to become magistrates in the latest intake, instead of aiming higher to become a NSW District Court judge.

“Most prosecutors don’t go sideways to become magistrates.”

A DPP spokesperson said it was a ‘natural career progression’ for Crown Prosecutors to apply for positions as judges or magistrates.

Another legal source said younger Crown prosecutors felt the pressure to proceed in cases, even if they raised concerns about the evidence or the strength of the case.

“She tries to stand over the younger Crown prosecutors and basically accuse them of trying to be weak and not committed,” they said.

“Where there is a relatively senior prosecutor, they will put up a submission in writing to her saying the case is so weak that it should not be prosecuted.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the DPP said claims of a “toxic culture” or “atmosphere of fear” within the office “are rejected, and that all cases are considered on their merits according to Prosecution Guidelines.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman, who appointed Ms Dowling to the role in 2021 – wouldn’t be drawn into the matter or comment on the audit.

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