A senior officer in the Australian Federal Police is expected to be grilled about how Brittany Higgins’ sensitive counselling notes ended up with the defence team of the man she accuses of raping her.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Joanne Cameron was not directly involved in investigating the former Liberal staffer’s allegations, but the team who was reported to her.
Ms Higgins alleges Bruce Lehrmann, a former colleague, raped her in 2019, inside the Parliament House office of then coalition minister Linda Reynolds after a night out.
Mr Lehrmann denies the allegation.
Ms Cameron will be cross-examined following her evidence she observed a breakdown in the relationship between the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and police investigators.
In her statement to the inquiry, Ms Cameron said “the professional trust and rapport between agencies appeared to me to have diminished”.
She said this occurred after a report by the ACT government, in collaboration with the DPP and other agencies, found police could be undercharging in sexual assault matters.
Ms Cameron got a sense there was “broadly tension” between police and the DPP.
But any suggestions that police were colluding with the defence team were incorrect, she said.
The inquiry has previously heard a brief of evidence containing Ms Higgins’ counselling notes was provided to both the defence and prosecutors.
Ms Cameron agreed this was an error made by police.
Reviewing a timeline of events which led to the error, Ms Cameron said it appeared a routine police process had been skipped.
“Thereby creating the opportunity for such routine issues … to be overlooked or forgotten (and) creating the mistake of serving an unredacted brief to the defence,” Ms Cameron said.
AFP Commander Michael Chew is also expected to give evidence to the inquiry.
Australian Associated Press