Bruce Lehrmann case review: warning issued to media by Walter Sofronoff

The chair of the board of inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system has expressed concern about the publication of intimate material involving Brittany Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann.

Inquiry chief Walter Sofronoff.

The chair of the board of inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system has expressed concern about the publication of personal material involving Brittany Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann.

During day three of public hearings, Walter Sofronoff KC urged media covering the inquiry to exercise caution around the ­reporting of personal information contained in exhibits.

Mr Sofronoff said it was in the public interest to “open up the relevant documents so that they can be appreciated” by those following proceedings.

“If the community and the journalists who served the community are to follow the oral evidence at the hearing and form their own views as citizens whose vital interests are involved, they have to be able to see the whole of the relevant and significant evidence,” he said.

“However, the public interest is not (served) by the misuse of the evidence that I make available only for that purpose.”

The inquiry has released a large number of documents, including some prepared by police in what has become known as the Moller Report, which contain ­details of the investigation.

Mr Sofronoff raised his concern after Mark Tedeschi, who is representing Director of Public Prosecution Shane Drumgold at the inquiry, urged Mr Sofronoff to restrict publication of some evidence after drawing his attention to media stories that ­included “statements that are defamatory of Ms Brittany Higgins” and that would never have been admissible at Mr Lehrmann’s trial.

“What we would submit is that you, chairman, make a request and an urgent request to the media to use all attempts to take down any reference to other allegations of sexual conduct,” Mr Tedeschi said.

Mr Sofronoff said the media would be “wise to do so without a request”. “If you cherry pick statements in evidentiary documents that are defamatory and scandalous, nobody is going to regard that as a fair report, and it might be a contempt of the commission,” he said.

“So I would expect that I don’t have to say anything about that.

“I would expect that a reputable media organisation would hurry to do it.”

Mr Sofronoff also admonished anyone posting scandalous material on social media.

“I know that there have been similar repugnant publications on social media by individuals,” he said. “These are also actionable, and it would not be hard to track down who has posted this kind of material.”

Lawyer Justin Quill, who ­appeared on behalf of five media organisations including News Corp which publishes The Australian, argued Mr Sofronoff should not “baulk at the first signs of trouble” and emphasised that the public nature of the inquiry was “too important to be let go”.

“My submission is ultimately these documents and the matters contained within them are crucial and key issues in this whole inquiry.”

He said it would be “bordering on impossible” to properly report on the issues without ­access to them.

“Once you start suppressing elements of this, it does become a slippery slope and you end up suppressing or having private hearings, in my submission, that is absolutely not in anyone’s ­interest.”

Mr Sofronoff said he was not prepared to conduct the inquiry in a way that “causes avoidable harm” to the two people, Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann, who are “at the centre of this matter”.

“Their lives have been irrevocably changed in the course of the last few years,” he said.