Bruce Lehrmann revealed as man charged with two counts of rape in Toowoomba

[Festerz]

There is a sad irony in the way that officers of the ACT Sexual Assault Unit, including the head of the unit Det Supt Scott Moller have announced defamation action against the ACT Government the day after survivors of sexual assault gathered in their thousands on the Canberra lawns of Parliament House to demand action to halt the epidemic of violence and sexual assault on women.

Because on any measure, the sexual assault unit headed by Moller is the poorest performing in Australia in terms of the level of sexual assaults being reported and reports of sexual assault resulting in charges being laid.

The 2021 report by the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Steering Committee shows that only 2.8% of sexual assault investigations in the ACT had resulted in charges being laid against an offender after 30 days, compared with the national average of 17.4%.

Sexual assaults were also charged at a lower rate than other assaults in the ACT. After 30 days, 19.9% of assault allegations had resulted in charges being laid, compared with the 2.8% for sexual assaults.

And the percentage of sexual assault offences reported that resulted in charges being laid at all had decreased significantly over the decade to 2021, when Higgins laid her complaint, from 28% to just 7%.

“Sexual violence offences remain under-reported, under-charged and under-prosecuted in the ACT,” the report states.

Perhaps because the police unit charged with handling reports of sexual assault and dealing with charging sex offenders in the ACT is too busy with extra curricular activities - like preparing defamation action for a lucrative payday from the Lehrmann legal fiasco gravy train?

 

[FIGJAM]

There is a sad irony in the way that officers of the ACT Sexual Assault Unit, including the head of the unit Det Supt Scott Moller have announced defamation action against the ACT Government the day after survivors of sexual assault gathered in their thousands on the Canberra lawns of Parliament House to demand action to halt the epidemic of violence and sexual assault on women.

I'm sure that they couldn't have timed various releases and announcements.

We should not forget the Detective Superintendent Moller is a sexual abuse survivor and this has driven him to work with victims of sexual assault.

Lead investigator into Brittany Higgins's rape allegation reveals he is survivor of sexual assault

Detective Superintendent Scott Moller tells an ACT board of inquiry that he was sexually assaulted 45 years ago.

www.abc.net.au

I doubt he took his recommendation to Drumgold that there was insufficient evidence to get a criminal conviction in this matter lightly.

Drumgold's claims around Moller that "there “very clear campaign to pressure” him not to charge Lehrmann, and that police investigators were “clearly aligned with the successful defence of this matter” during the trial, would want to have somed evidence behind his musings.

Police did not believe evidence was sufficient to take Bruce Lehrmann to trial, inquiry hears

AFP’s Scott Moller says he charged Lehrmann on advice of DPP despite investigators not thinking Brittany Higgins’s allegations reached threshold for prosecution

www.theguardian.com

Hard to work out why Drumgold made these claims though. Did Drumgold just want the opinion on a recommendation to proceed to simply suit his preference of a smooth transition to charges and a trial? Perhaps Drumgold was under pressures from others himself?

 

[Ice-Wolf]

We should not forget the Detective Superintendent Moller is a sexual abuse survivor and this has driven him to work with victims of sexual assault.

We also shouldn't forget the appalling statistics of the unit they head up compared to the similar units in other Australian jurisdictions.

Now there could be a number of reasons for this outside their control but it's not a good look.

 

[MrsBlueSky]

Looks like Drumgold and the five sensitive police officers need their own thread.
Policemen taking out civil defamation proceedings obviously have their hands out for money, rather than trying to see justice served by punishment under a criminal defamation case.

 

[Festerz]

We also shouldn't forget the appalling statistics of the unit they head up compared to the similar units in other Australian jurisdictions.

Yep.

As outlined earlier, Moller responded to those damning statistics during the Sofronoff investigation by outlining the lack of experience and career commitment of officers appointed to his sexual assault team.

And Moller admits his unit made a number of fundamental errors in their handling of the Bruce Lehrmann rape investigation, including providing Ms Higgins private sexual assault service counselling counselling notes to prosecutors and defence lawyers.

And in evidence to the Sofronoff Inquiry Moller also confided that his colleagues had their own 'deep-seated views' in relation to the fact that they did not think there was enough evidence to prosecute Mr Lehrmann for rape saying:

'Members of the investigation team felt sick when they found our we were going to move forward to charge, but they still did it and they still processed the charge because that's what we do.'

Felt sick? FMD. Well I hope those officers feel sick at the evidence and findings of the Lehrmann defamation trial which finally delivered some form of justice to the rape victim Brittany Higgins?

While there is obviously a need for impartiality from police investigators, what sort of support and empathy could a young victim of rape expect from when those investigating hold such visceral negative views of what they have been tasked to do? Higgin's evidence of her first formal meeting with the ACT Sexual Assault investigative officers - outlining details of her rape while being cross examined by 4 men in a small interrogation room - was pretty damning.

Any friend or family member of a future victim of sexual assault in the ACT would look at how Ms Higgins was treated in all aspects of the investigation and trial process and would advise them to not report the heinous crime against them.

That members of this unit now decide to take defamation action against the ACT government for complaints made against them in a letter, just adds salt into the wounds of the victims of rape.

And Moller's horrible personal experience as a teenager mitigates none of this. He is the head of a sexual assault unit that on both objective and subjective assessment has performed poorly in its role. And it failed in its investigation of what has now been confirmed as the callous workplace rape of Ms Higgins. That is what should matter to these officers - not a friggin letter of complaint.

 

[FIGJAM]

We also shouldn't forget the appalling statistics of the unit they head up compared to the similar units in other Australian jurisdictions.

True that!

Canberra is a weird place though. It's relatively small with an intense reliance on government services. It doesn't grow in population very fast and not many people want to move there, let along burgeoning young coppers with a passion for solving sex crime. Plus you have some more exotic options for security, with the military and ASIO, and as Moller pointed out, interstate and overseas postings for the feds.

Within the context of this case though, Canberra being poor with assault cases historically is just a 'not nice to know' statement of fact.

The two activations of this case has seen Detective Constable Sarah Harman allocated who has had very good sexual-assault specific training (and barely had a chance to investigate) and she has continued on in the role since. Seems dedicated to me.

For the reactivation of the case, they (whoever they are), got one of the top brass in Detective Superintendent Scott Moller personally looked after it with a full team investigating it.

Worrying about the stats here is something of a distraction IMHO.

 

[FIGJAM]

And in evidence to the Sofronoff Inquiry Moller also confided that his colleagues had their own 'deep-seated views' in relation to the fact that they did not think there was enough evidence to prosecute Mr Lehrmann for rape saying:

'Members of the investigation team felt sick when they found our we were going to move forward to charge, but they still did it and they still processed the charge because that's what we do.'

Felt sick? FMD. Well I hope those officers feel sick at the evidence and findings of the Lehrmann defamation trial which finally delivered some form of justice to the rape victim Brittany Higgins?

What if I put it to you that the investigation team may have "felt sick" about pressing charges, because it is indicative of the intense political pressure on the case?

That whatever 'Big Brother' was ensuring that these charges were laid, were overruling their month's long intensive and independent investigations, that concluded that there was insufficient evidence in this instance. With the stroke of a pen, their collective independent assessment was thrown to one side.

Drumgold overriding them in rare cases would be fine. He can take the punt, because it's his budget on the line. And maybe he thought they might garner more evidence in the meantime.

But given Drumgold's invention of a conspiracy theory about his own team of police, I feel like he expected (if not demanded!) that the police towed the party line.

Then there is the added issue of what if Drumgold isn't just wanting the case to go ahead for himself? Who's leaning on him? ACT government? The ScoMo government?

Suffice to say that them "feeling sick" is a rough turn of phrase, but there can be sound reasons that they were aggrieved with their independent findings being overruled.


Posted by you on 6 April 2024:

My belief is that Lehrmann will almost certainly win his claim that The Project program (publication) defamed Mr Lehrmann. That he was readily identifiable in the story and that the high bar to demonstrably prove that in the balance of probabilities Lehrmann did indeed rape Ms Higgins as outlined in the story (i.e. the truth defence) was not reached, due in part to the lack of credibility of the key witnesses.

Given that that was you belief as to Lee's probable verdict, which I too agreed with as likely, I'm sure we can find some consensus that the police's opinion on a lack of evidence to proceed was not unreasonable (based on the evidence at the time), particularly through the lens of 'beyond a reasonable doubt' criminal standard of proof.

 

[CM86]

 

[Not Important]

if anyone has access to ackland’s article i’d love to read it. particularly the follow-up to the reference to the cover-up.

 

[Chief]

if anyone has access to ackland’s article i’d love to read it. particularly the follow-up to the reference to the cover-up.

Loving the modern internet.

Forum poster posts an embedded tweet posted by a third party pointing to a web site with a pay wall over a blog post.

 

[Festerz]

View attachment 1975161

The thumbs up to the comment is still there btw, albeit with his new role in the ACT Police (I wonder how that's going):





To be clear, while some may view it is inappropriate, the leader of a police investigative unit liking a comment on a LinkedIn app relating to the importance of the judicial process does not necessarily indicate a bias towards the case in which he is the lead investigator.

But what I found interesting is the lead post that Superintendent Moller was giving the thumbs up to:

 

[FIGJAM]

Loving the modern internet.

Forum poster posts an embedded tweet posted by a third party pointing to a web site with a pay wall over a blog post.

All so someone can read the same rehashed conspiracy theories that some have perfected in this thread.

I hope you're getting a cut!

 

[CM86]

The thumbs up to the comment is still there btw, albeit with his new role in the ACT Police (I wonder how that's going):

View attachment 1975206



To be clear, while some may view it is inappropriate, the leader of a police investigative unit liking a comment on a LinkedIn app relating to the importance of the judicial process does not necessarily indicate a bias towards the case in which he is the lead investigator.

But what I found interesting is the lead post that Superintendent Moller was giving the thumbs up to:

View attachment 1975203

Janet Albrechtsen? That name sounds familiar...

Nope, just can't seem to put my finger on it.



The good news is that they put their best man on the case! Moller!!!
Who selected this person? Well, the best people of course.

And goshdangit, wouldn'tcha know... They just couldn't find any evidence to support Higgins' claim. (That she was raped),
In fact, they found she was untrustworthy, and that it really shouldn't go to trial.
She even deleted some messages before handing everything over to them.
It's the police ffs... what did she think would happen? That somehow it would be leaked and spread as national news all across Australia?
A likely story!



But it's ok. They're suing the prosecutor who pushed for the trial of Higgins (THE RAPE VICTIM), against their best efforts.



And they're now going to look into the concept of the idea of if they should, maybe, investigate the harm they caused Higgins with the leaks etc.


Gotta love a happy ending! Especially if it's on 7's tab.

 

[Saint]

Some people are getting very offended and feeling defamed when people point out their incompetence.

Seems like this is how the LNP have developed their defamation laws with the initial question:

"Why should people be able to point out our incompetence and say we're disgraceful without having both the money to sustain a Federal Court case and burden of proof?"

Next day, front up to the cameras:

"Minister ___ is so incompetent they should resign in disgrace"

Moller: "It wasn't corruption, it was incompetence, now I'm suing because it was the incompetence of the staff I lead, not myself directly. Now where's my $200k paycheck to take responsibility for the staff I lead"

 

[campbell]

Speaking of the AFP Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team, officers from that unit have jumped on the Lehrmann saga defamation money train...



As with the Linda Reynolds defamation action against them, the ACT Govt. will settle long before this gets to trial.

The AFP SACAT know this.

Money for old rope.

Disgusting

 

[campbell]

https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/twist-in-defamation-dispute-launched-by-senator-linda-reynolds-against-brittany-higgins-and-david-sharaz/news-story/3859d463767320427526cfa268ffe38

 

[QuietB]

This whole saga is some gravy train.

Police suing for defamation is quite the rabbit hole.

 

[FIGJAM]

Moller: "It wasn't corruption, it was incompetence, now I'm suing because it was the incompetence of the staff I lead, not myself directly. Now where's my $200k paycheck to take responsibility for the staff I lead"

Moller has been neither incompetent nor corrupt.

It's amazing to me how many bit-player players or departments related to this whole affair get slammed.

 

[QuietB]

https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/twist-in-defamation-dispute-launched-by-senator-linda-reynolds-against-brittany-higgins-and-david-sharaz/news-story/3859d463767320427526cfa268ffe38

“Fiona Brown and I have lost our careers, had our reputations destroyed and have had our health seriously and irreparably compromised.” - you resigned you silly nincompoop

 

[Chief]

“Fiona Brown and I have lost our careers, had our reputations destroyed and have had our health seriously and irreparably compromised.” - you resigned you silly nincompoop

Is she saying she was pressured to resign?

 

[Festerz]

I imagine Reynolds had made the assumption that a settlement of her defamation action against Sharaz would give her access to the 'joint' assets of Sharaz and Higgins - hence her attempt to get French authorities to place place a hold over Ms Higgins' French based assets.

If Mr Sharaz has no financial assets of his own either individually or as a joint owner, it leaves Ms Reynolds in a bit of a pickle wrt seeking a financial settlement with him for his multiple twitter posts.

 

[QuietB]

Is she saying she was pressured to resign?

"Fiona Brown and I have lost our careers" is apparently a Reynolds quote in the article - but it is a Murdoch rag so could be random AI as well

 

[Ice-Wolf]

Is she saying she was pressured to resign?

Doubt it, she probably just isn't in good with Dutton hence no shadow ministry (cause we all know he doesn't seen to give a s**t about the Higgins rape).

She was technically demoted by Morrison more in prestige than anything actually substantial (she was still a Minister), ostensibly this is because she hadn't informed Morrison of the rape (although some would argue Morrison made sure he wasn't informed etc) but she could just has easily been demoted because of her department's various project failures.

If she was pressured not to recontest her seat at the next Senate election it could easily have nothing to do with the Higgins anyway.

Frankly if it wasn't a huge waste of money I'd love to see all the Coalition players have to front up to court to answer uncomfortable questions in the defamation case.

Also if any manager (Minister) carried on like Reynolds has when someone was raped in their workplace they'd probably have gotten the chop regardless as would whichever manager (Minister) was supposedly in charge of security.

Ministerial responsibility has been severely lacking in recent governments.

 

[Festerz]

"Fiona Brown and I have lost our careers" is apparently a Reynolds quote in the article - but it is a Murdoch rag so could be random AI as well

Notice how she continues to reference her former Chief of Staff (Fiona Brown) in public statements despite the fact that Ms Brown is not a party to the defamation action and made it quite clear during the Lehrmann defamation trial that she was herself being bullied by Senator Reynolds in relation to how to handle Ms Higgins allegations of sexual assault.

My guess is that Senator Reynolds realises what a low opinion the general public have of her and that it is sinking by the day. And so is trying to play the sympathy card by aligning herself to the one person in her office who came out with their reputation and integrity intact in the eyes of Justice Lee.

Pathetic.

 

[Festerz]

Is she saying she was pressured to resign?

My guess it is a reference to a health condition that saw her take leave from Parliament in 2021 when she was forced to publicly apologise for calling Brittany Higgins a lying cow.

But reports at the time make it clear that her sick leave was due to 'a pre-existing health condition' and not related to the Brittany Higgins conflict.

Linda Reynolds extends sick leave amid ongoing controversy over Brittany Higgins

The defence minister, who has apologised for calling Higgins a ‘lying cow’, is being treated for a pre-existing medical condition

www.theguardian.com

In any case it was Scott Morrison who demoted her as Minister prior to the election, for political reasons after her famous' lying cow' gaffe. That she is still putting the blame on her young staffer who was still suffering from the trauma of being raped in her office by another staffer shows the judgement of ScoMo on this particular matter was spot on.

Christian Porter and Linda Reynolds demoted as PM reshuffles cabinet with 'fresh lens' on women

Scott Morrison announces new taskforce for women that aims to ‘shake up what needs to be shaken up’ as part of ministerial reshuffle

www.theguardian.com