Federal court dismisses defamation claim by AFP officers against Shane Drumgold

Shane Drumgold will be paid costs of $12,500 after the federal court dismissed a defamation claim brought by a group of Australian federal police officers. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The federal court has dismissed a defamation case brought by a group of Australian federal police officers against the former ACT top prosecutor Shane Drumgold.

On Tuesday a court registrar dismissed the case, which had sought $1.42m in damages, alleging that Drumgold defamed the officers in a written complaint about their handling of the Bruce Lehrmann prosecution.

Guardian Australia understands the case was withdrawn by the applicants, a group of police led by Det Insp Marcus Boorman. The court ordered the applicants pay Drumgold’s costs of $12,500.

An ACT government spokesperson said “prior to the respondents (the Territory and Mr Drumgold) filing defences in the proceeding, the applicants proposed discontinuing the action”.

“This was agreed to by the respondents.

“The Territory and the applicants agreed to bear their own costs incurred to date on the basis that the entirety of the proceeding would conclude at this early stage.

“At the request of the parties, the federal court dismissed the proceeding in its entirety … these orders bring finality to this claim.”

A statement provided by Drumgold’s lawyers said: “Mr Drumgold always held the view that the police officers’ defamation case was never likely to succeed.

“He is relieved that the proceedings were dismissed by consent, with a costs order in his favour.

“The media headlines generated from the defamation claims, in his view, were always likely to be the high point in the claims.

“In any event, Mr Drumgold hopes everyone involved finds peace and can now move on.”

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. He said there was “inappropriate interference” and he felt investigators “clearly aligned with the successful defence of this matter” during the trial.

Drumgold sent the letter to the ACT police chief on 1 November 2022, just after the collapse of the Lehrmann trial, at which the former Liberal staffer pleaded innocent to the alleged rape.

Lehrmann was not convicted at the trial, which was abandoned due to juror misconduct, but was found by a federal court judge in April on the balance of probabilities to have raped Higgins on minister Linda Reynold’s couch in Parliament House in 2019. Drumgold resigned in August 2023.

The AFP officers launched their case in late April, claiming that Drumgold had brought them into “public disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt”.

“Within the AFP, a police officer’s professional reputation is critical to his or her career success and ability to effectively engage with members of the community,” their statement of claim said.

Reynolds has already received a $90,000 settlement and an apology from the ACT government in relation to the Drumgold letter.

The letter helped spark an inquiry by the former judge Walter Sofronoff KC to investigate Drumgold’s allegations and the relationship between the DPP and AFP.

Drumgold told the inquiry a police and political conspiracy over the Lehrmann prosecution was “possible, if not probable”. Drumgold later clarified he no longer held those views.

Drumgold launched a challenge to the Sofronoff inquiry report in the ACT supreme court, arguing that the inquiry breached the law through the alleged unauthorised disclosure of material, and that he was denied natural justice due to “a reasonable apprehension of bias”.

In March justice Stephen Kaye agreed that Sofronoff’s extensive communications with a columnist at The Australian newspaper gave rise to an impression of bias against Drumgold.

The AFP officers lawyers declined to comment.