The respected former judge who led the Dutch Safety Board into the persecution of Bruce Lehrmann who deals with 'seriously corrupt behavior', has discovered the Act Integrity Commission.
The corruption watchdog investigated retired Queensland -judge Walter Sofronoff about his dealing with two journalists while conducting his investigation into the failed crown case against Lehrmann in 2023.
Mr. Sofronoff gave his final report to Janet Albrechtssen of the Australian and the ABCs Elizabeth Byrne before it was officially released by the ACT government.
The research found it to hand over the report 'Endangered the trust of the public' in the processes of his research – together with the judgments in his report – and fell into 'different elements of the definition of' corrupt behavior '.
'[Mr Sofronoff’s] Publication of the report itself to journalists before it was publicly released was contrary to the requirement of the investigation of the investigation, “said the Commission's findings.
The report should have only passed to the minister's president to focus on the timing and the size of the publication, subject to the role of the legislative meeting, it said.
'The disclosures were unfair hidden in particular [former ACT chief prosecutor Shane] Drumgold and the [ACT] Minister -President, who prevented them from taking protective legal action, added the findings.
'This disputed behavior was the performance of Mr Sofronoff's official functions in a way that was not impartial, which significantly affected the integrity of the investigation of the trust of the public.
'And, with regard to his communication with MS (Janet) Albrechtsen, gave rise to a fear of bias that influenced his findings about Mr. Drumgold. That behavior could justify Mr Sofronoff's removal from the investigation. '
The ACT Integrity Commission found respected former judge Walter Sofronoff who deals with 'seriously corrupt behavior' while ling a research council into the persecution of Bruce Lehrmann
The corruption watchdog thought that Mr. Sofronoff has inappropriate with interactions with the Australians Janet Albrechtsen (photo)
Mr Sofronoff also criticized the investigation about his decision to give the ABC's Elizabeth Byrne a copy of his final report under Embargo
The report noted that Mr. Sofronoff sustained that his interactions “had met the requirements of the research law.”
“Mr Sofronoff claimed that his behavior met the requirements of the research law, and that he had acted in the public interest to ensure that the media were sufficiently informed about the issues that were investigated by his research and in a position and in a position to accurately comment on them,” the report said.
'However, the Commission concludes that he had actually not acted in good faith and that his behavior, which comes down to corrupt behavior within the meaning of the IC law, the integrity of the processes of the administration and the fairness and the probability of its proceedings, undermined to such an extent that they have probably threatened public confidence in the integrity of that aspect of that aspect.
“It was therefore seriously corrupt behavior.”
No findings were made against one of the journalists.
Mr. Sofronoff's investigation had investigated the handling of the accusations of sexual violence against Lehrmann.
The former liberal employee was tried in the Supreme Court of ACT in 2022 because of accusations that he had raped his then colleague Brittany Higgins in parliament house after a night of heavy drinking in 2019.
The criminal trial was demolished after one of the jury members had entered into misconduct, in which Mr. Drumgold refused to comply with an introduction for the fragile mental health health of Mrs. Higgins.
The criminal trial against Bruce Lehrmann was demolished in 2022 as a result of the misconduct of jury member
Lehrmann later turned out to have raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in parliament house in the field of probably after he had sued Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson
Mr. Drumgold called for a public investigation into how the case was dealt with, only for the assessment of Mr Sofronoff make damn findings about the own behavior of the then DPP.
The findings of Mr Sofronoff have since been hit by the fear of bias in the Supreme Court of ACT.
Lehrmann has since turned out that he has raped Higgins in the field of likes in a civil court after he launched individual defamation against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson during an interview with MS Higgins that appeared on the project.
He is currently appealing to that decision.
Mr Sofronoff's Corruption Waakhond Act found Mrs. Albrechtsen of a series of 'confidential materials', including witness statements that were not offered as evidence in the investigation and designs of his final report With comments from the legal team that helps the research.
The committee found the disclosures “Raised a serious infringement in the probability of the performance of his functions of Mr Sofronoff.”
De Waakhond also discovered that Mr Sofronoff had sent his final report to Mrs. Albrechtsen and Mrs. Byrne under Embargo and that he 'had' therebyacted to favor their interests as journalists to the detriment of the compensatory interests of the [inquiry’s] Participants and the Chief Minister '.
Mr Sofronoff claimed to provide the report to the two journalists as a way to help them understand their content and to accurately report the findings when they were released – but the committee rejected his statement as 'imaginative'.
Former ACT, headlower Shane Drumgold called for a public inquiry into the act by the law of the allegations against Lehrmann to be only hammered by the subsequent probe
'[It] Amounts in reality to no more than giving Mrs. Albrechtsen and Mrs. Byrne a “standing start”, the committee thought.
Mr. Sofronoff's research made 'various serious findings of misconduct' against Mr. Drumgrold and found the main prosecutor occasionally … lost objectivity and did not act with fairness and detachment 'during the Lehrmann process.
Mr. Drumgold resigned in the days after the final report was made public, but later sought a judicial test of the findings in the Supreme Court of Act, in which Justice Stephen Kaye discovered that they were struck by a fear of prejudice to Mr Sofronoff's role and some of the findings of Mr. Lord.
“The fair observer could perhaps ensure that Mr Sofronoff considered himself a 'fellow traveler' of Mrs. Albrechtsen at that time with regard to the views she had spoken and maintained in her publications about the plaintiff,” Justice said Kaye.
“The observer could also fear that Mr. Sofronoff as such considered it appropriate to exchange opinions with Mrs. Albrechtsen about specific issues that he had to determine in the investigation.”
