AFP officers launch defamation case against ACT after complaint over Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial

Exclusive: Proceedings lodged after Shane Drumgold alleged officers engaged in a ‘very clear campaign to pressure him’ in a letter to the ACT police chief

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A group of Australian federal police officers have launched a defamation case against the ACT government in relation to Shane Drumgold’s complaint about their handling of the Bruce Lehrmann prosecution.

In December 2022 Guardian Australia revealed that Drumgold, then the director of public prosecutions, had complained that officers engaged in “a very clear campaign to pressure” him not to prosecute the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, saying there was “inappropriate interference” and he felt investigators “clearly aligned with the successful defence of this matter” during the trial.

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