Linda Reynolds wins apology and damages over Shane Drumgold ‘political interference’ slur
The ACT government has apologised to Linda Reynolds and paid $90,000 in damages and costs over accusations by Shane Drumgold during Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case.
The ACT government has apologised to former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds and paid $90,000 in damages and legal costs over accusations by former chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold during Bruce Lehrmann’s rape case that the senator had engaged in “disturbing conduct” that included political interference in the police investigation.
Senator Reynolds launched defamation action in December in the wake of findings by the Sofronoff board of inquiry that Mr Drumgold’s allegations against her were baseless and “grossly unethical”.
The settlement is believed to be the fifth successful legal action by the former defence minister over allegations against her, with a further case against Brittany Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, over comments they made on social media to be resolved.
Senator Reynolds will come face to face with her former employee on Tuesday with two days of mediation talks scheduled in Perth to try to avert a possible six-week trial in July.
She is suing Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz in separate defamation proceedings, with both being dealt with concurrently. It is the first visit back to Australia for Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz since they left for a new life in France last year.
Senator Reynolds told The Australian that since the conclusion of Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial and Ms Higgins’ $2.4m compensation settlement with the commonwealth, she had “set about vindicating my reputation, which I consider has been wrongly damaged”.
“The ACT has accepted the findings of the board of inquiry, specifically that allegations made about my conduct during the criminal trial were defamatory.”
The ACT government “unreservedly retracts those allegations … (and) sincerely apologises for the damage, distress and embarrassment it has caused to Senator Reynolds”, the ACT Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety said in a statement.
The ACT paid her $70,000 in damages and $20,000 in legal costs over the defamatory comments by the former DPP.
The defamation claim focused on a letter Mr Drumgold wrote to ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan in November 2022 making allegations about political interference in the investigation and trial of Mr Lehrmann.
Mr Drumgold also claimed Senator Reynolds had coached Mr Lehrmann’s defence team and attempted to solicit transcripts of the trial.
The then-ACT director of public prosecutions gave the letter to The Guardian newspaper, a move that helped spark the Sofronoff inquiry and ultimately brought Mr Drumgold’s own career to an end.
At the trial, Mr Drumgold told the jury that “political forces” explained the delay in Ms Higgins’s complaint to the police, and that “it is abundantly clear from the evidence and actions of Senator Reynolds during this trial that those political forces were still a factor”.
Mr Sofronoff found that “there was not a single piece of evidence that anyone had applied pressure upon Ms Higgins that could legitimately be described as ‘strong political forces’ ”.
In his cross-examination of Senator Reynolds, Mr Drumgold claimed she “arranged” for her partner to attend court and that he had been discussing Ms Higgins’s evidence with her.
There was no evidence of this and it was “tantamount to an allegation of an attempt to pervert the course of justice”, Mr Sofronoff said.
“It is a fundamental principle of ethical legal practice that suggestions to a witness should not be made unless they are supported by reliable information.
“Mr Drumgold was examined about his understanding of this ethical principle.
“His ignorance deeply disturbed me … He fails to understand the difference between putting forward to a witness an allegation of misconduct as a fact and asking a witness whether or not something is a fact.”
Mr Drumgold had also attempted to discredit Senator Reynolds by questioning her about a text she had sent to Mr Whybrow requesting a copy of the trial transcript to be sent to her lawyer.
“Mr Drumgold had no basis upon which to put that suggestion, which was intended to impute impropriety in Senator Reynolds in the eyes of the jurors,” Mr Sofronoff said.
Ms Higgins had issued legal proceedings against Senator Reynolds and she had been advised by her lawyer to get the trial transcript in order to provide her with advice.
“A phone call to the lawyer would have revealed the truth about that matter to Mr Drumgold,” Mr Sofronoff said.
The same could be said about the presence in court of Senator Reynolds’s partner, Mr Sofronoff observed.
Relatives and friends of witnesses frequently attended cases to observe proceedings. In this case, some friends and supporters of Ms Higgins attended.
“The suggestion that Senator Reynolds as well as her partner were engaging in potentially criminal conduct was an improper one and should not have been made,” Mr Sofronoff said. “Likewise, it was improper to put to Senator Reynolds that she was ‘politically invested’ in the outcome of the trial. There was not only no basis for this but the nature of the political investment, why it might be important politically for there to be an acquittal, was never identified.”
Mr Sofronoff said he accepted Mr Drumgold’s submission that “he acted out of ignorance but I must say that I am taken aback that a senior counsel holding the office of DPP should be so ignorant of this fundamental principle”.
“The suggestions made by Mr Drumgold had no basis at all and should not have been made,” he said.
“They were intended to, and might have, affected the outcome of the trial adversely to Mr Lehrmann and the conduct was, therefore, grossly unethical.”
Mr Sofronoff found that Mr Drumgold “advanced nothing resembling evidence to support the serious allegations of impropriety that he levelled against the police, defence and Senator Reynolds”.
“This inquiry has thoroughly examined the allegations in Mr Drumgold’s letter. Each allegation has been exposed to be baseless.
“Late in giving his oral evidence, Mr Drumgold finally resiled from his scandalous allegations. The allegation of political interference was particularly wicked because it was an allegation that had a tendency to lessen the community’s confidence in the system of administration of justice and was made without the slightest evidence to support it.”
Senator Reynolds will be represented at the Perth mediation on Tuesday by five lawyers, headed by barrister Martin Bennett, while Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz between them will have seven, with Ms Higgins’ team led by silk Nick Owens SC and her lawyer Leon Zwier.
