Protected evidence in the case of a man charged with the sexual assault of Brittany Higgins — including counselling notes and video recordings — was unlawfully disclosed to the defence by the Australian Federal Police, according to a formal complaint to the AFP.
Her complaint said the ACT director of public prosecutions made her aware the AFP had "unlawfully disclosed protected material to the defence counsel"The revelation is the latest twist in what has already become a complex and contentious court case after the defence moved earlier last month to have the trial delayed indefinitely or, failing that, temporarily due to adverse publicity.
A summary of email communications with the AFP provided to Ms Higgins by the DPP, and seen by the ABC, reveals an increasingly unhappy Mr Drumgold expressing frustration with the police for their tardiness in trying to clarify that the defence had not accessed the material that had been unlawfully handed over, and in acting to have them returned.
In addition to the unlawful disclosure of protected evidence, the ACT director of public prosecutions, Mr Drumgold, revealed to Ms Higgins that the police had directly handed over the brief to the defence counsel, bypassing the requirement that it be handed over via the DPP. When the police subsequently confirmed that the sensitive non-disclosable material had indeed been handed to the defence, the DPP wrote to the AFP expressing "deep concerns, outlining [the]
The DPP contacted the accused's lawyer, Warwick Korn, directly to confirm he had acted on the email from the AFP and was told by Mr Korn that he had not accessed the material but did not know how to delete it.
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