Bruce Lehrmann investigator Scott Moller tells Sofronoff inquiry: I’m a sex assault survivor

The senior detective who oversaw the investigation of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation has revealed that he was sexually assaulted 45 years ago.

Detective Superintendent Scott Moller appears before the Sofronoff inquiry.

The senior detective who oversaw the investigation of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation has revealed he is a sexual assault survivor after being forced to deny having “outdated” views towards complainants and defend his team’s attitude towards Bruce Lehrmann’s prosecution.

Detective Superintendent Scott Moller told the Board of Inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system on Wednesday that his own experience of sexual assault has been his “driving force” while he is also proud of his investigators for prosecuting Mr Lehrmann despite their “deeply seated views” that there was insufficient evidence to charge the former Liberal staffer.

At the end of three days on the stand, Supt Moller’s lawyer Matt Black asked him what life experiences had informed his approach as a police officer.

Superintendent Moller then revealed that he was sexually assaulted as a child.

“I’m a survivor,” he said. “Forty-five years ago, I was a victim of sexual assault, and I’ve lived with that for 45 years, and that has driven my desire to work in the police and to work with victims.

“That’s driven my desire and my want to make sure that never happens, that sexual assault never happens to anyone else in the community.

“And that’s been my driving force.

“There’s a lot of other police that work in ACT Police who draw on other life experiences, but that’s been mine and that’s been my ongoing commitment and will be my ongoing commitment until I retire.”

Supt Moller, who maintained his composure, said he found it offensive to hear criticism that police held “rape myths” about victim behaviour, given his own experience.

“It is disappointing to hear that there’s an inference that we’re not working as hard as we can to solve those matters, to move forward with those matters to have them prosecuted,” he said.

The veteran officer said that police charged Mr Lehrmann, on the DPP’s advice, even though it made them “feel sick”, because “their opinion was not as important as the greater good”.

When the board’s chair, Walter Sofronoff KC, asked whether he thought police working on the case had lost objectivity, Superintendent Moller said investigators “pushed forward against their own beliefs”.

“I don’t think they lost objectivity because when we decided to go through and charge, that was our direction,” he said. “They still did it and they were committed to the process, because that’s what we do as police.

“Our opinion, in some respects, is not as important as the greater good.”

Bruce Lehrmann has denied allegations that he raped Brittany Higgins. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Earlier, during cross-examination from Mark Tedeschi KC, Superintendent Moller rejected that his original opinion that there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr Lehrmann was wrong. “No, I agree that my opinion changed when I read the advice from the director who’s far more experienced in matters of the court than I am,” he said.

Superintendent Moller further rejected the suggestion his initial view was the result of “a misunderstanding of the standard of proof required” for police to charge alleged offenders in sexual assault cases and that police had “outdated views” about the credibility of complainants.

He did walk back some of his criticism of Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates after saying she had acted “inappropriately” by personally becoming Ms Higgins’s support person and placing a barrier between police and the complainant.

Superintendent Moller told the inquiry it was “cumbersome” and frustrating being unable to converse with Ms Higgins directly but he now appreciated that Ms Yates appeared to have been assisting police.

“Certainly that’s how I felt at the time but on reflection and being provided with that information, it makes it a lot clearer that Miss Yates was being a significant help to police,” he said.

He doubled down on his views that Ms Higgins’s “drive to be in the media” made their work “difficult”.

Under cross-examination from Peggy Dwyer, representing Ms Yates, Superintendent Moller said he was “candid” with Ms Higgins during a meeting in May 2021 about the problems her public comments were causing.

“If you’re going to speak to the media and (the prosecution) can’t go ahead, it’ll all be for nothing,” he admitted telling her. “When I’m saying ‘it will all be for nothing’, I was talking about the prosecution, rather than her ability to heal,” he said.

“The media had the potential to undermine everything we were trying to do to get it to a prosecution.”

Peggy Dwyer, who is representing Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates at the Sofronoff inquiry.

Dr Dwyer said Ms Higgins “might have felt that you were scolding her”.

When Superintendent Moller requested another meeting with Ms Higgins six weeks later to update her on the investigation, she refused.

On June 29, 2021, he emailed Ms Yates seeking a face-to-face meeting with Ms Higgins.

Later that day, Ms Higgins emailed Superintendent Moller saying she would prefer all updates be relayed through her lawyer. “Our last conversation was quite distressing,” she wrote.

“In any way we can mitigate any unnecessary protracted conversations will be preferable. If your advice pertains to whether or not the DPP are planning to proceed, please feel free to be as blunt and straight to the point as possible. No need for any long form explanations either way.

“In turn, I’ll continue to respect your overt preference for my ongoing media silence.”

Superintendent Moller said he had enjoyed a “productive and respectful” professional relationship with Ms Yates prior to this case and he admitted that the relationship between police and Ms Higgins, before the VOC Commissioner got involved, was fraught. He said Ms Higgins’s strategy in prioritising media engagement over the prosecution “made it difficult for investigators … It was difficult because of the perceived interest that Ms Higgins had in the media, the drive that Ms Higgins showed to be in the media.”

The difficulties began on April 8, 2021, when Ms Higgins asked for the investigation into her rape allegation to be reopened but refused to provide a police statement at that time ahead of her story being broadcast on The Project and published on news.com.au.

He said investigators’ frustrations continued as Ms Higgins resisted producing her mobile phone for examination.

Ms Yates eventually provided two of Ms Higgins’s phones to police in July 2021.

Former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins. Picture: AFP