Walter Sofronoff KC’s conduct of the inquiry into Shane Drumgold’s prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann for the rape of Brittany Higgins has been found to be biased, seriously corrupt, and deceitful.
The damning report was released today (March 19) by the ACT Integrity Commission under the baton of Michael Adams KC, the former Justice (Fatty) Adams.
This is the latest in a series of findings that have cleared the former ACT chief prosecutor and in the process cast light on the shocking secret collusion between the Cossack and uber-conservative values enforcer, Janet Albrechtsen, a scribbler at the foreign owned and controlled News Corp.
The findings of the ACT Integrity Commission are shocking and unprecedented. Sofronoff is a senior barrister, former President of the Queensland Court of Appeal, a former Banana Bending Solicitor General, and has conducted numerous official inquiries.
His orchestrated campaign with Albrechtsen which culminated in him sending his report to her before its release by the ACT government, resulted in a denial of natural justice for Drumgold.
His actions also preempted the possibility of Drumgold taking legal action to prevent the assassination of his character in the pages of Murdoch’s fishwrap.
In March 2024, Acting Justice Stephen Kaye found Sofronoff to be biased (apprehendidly) in the way he and Albrechtsen operated behind the scenes.
Then in October 2024, the ACT Bar Association established that Sofronoff’s grounds of complaint against the DPP in relation to Lehrmann’s prosecution did not amount to either profession misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct.
Now we have the Integrity Commission’s report, called Operation Juno – Juno being the Roman goddess who protected and counselled the state. She was also the sister and wife of Jupiter, something that would be well-known to Planet Janet.
See: Cossack in orbit with Planet
There now seem to be strong grounds for Drumgold to sue either or all Sofronoff, the ACT government, and Albrechtsen. By now it is clear that the decision by the ACT’s toy-town government in August 2023 that Drumgold’s position as DPP was “untenable” was itself untenable.
Sofronoff was found to have threatened “the integrity of government and public administration”, which was a ground made out for “serious corruption”.
Sofronoff also released an early copy his report to Elizabeth Byrne, an ABC reporter who covered his inquiry. This was done two days after the Planet received her special, “embargoed” copy.
When it was known by the board of inquiry’s staff and counsel assisting that Albrechtsen had been leaked an early copy, it was decided it would be unfair to the ABC if it was not afforded the same luxury.
Little turned on this because it was Albrechtsen who was making all the hay. As Acting Justice Kaye found in his judicial review reasons:
“The volume of communications that took place between Mr Sofronoff and Ms Albrechtsen was substantially greater than the volume of communications, which Mr Sofronoff himself had directly with other members of the media … The quantity, nature, content and circumstances of the communications … in the course of the inquiry, were markedly different to the method by which the [Board], ordinarily, communicated with members of the media and others.”
Sofronoff maintained that he was only assisting journalists get to grips with his work and ensure that their coverage was accurate.
The Integrity Commission exploded that excuse. Given Albrechtsen’s large number of opinion columns about Drumgold and her voluminous correspondence with Sofronoff, there was no need for her to get an early “understanding” – she already had it.
Sadly, the Cossock fell for the oldest ruse in the journalists’ book of pranks – along the lines of, “thanks for the embargoed copy, but someone else has given me another, unembargoed, copy, and we’ll be running with that”.
He made no effort to dissuade her from rushing to print before the government has released, let alone, considered the findings.
While Acting Justice Kay made findings in the judicial review case that Sofronoff’s decisions were affected by bias (apprehended), the Integrity Commission nonetheless come to its own conclusion about the injustice suffered by Drumgold.
In particular it was noted that:
“The communications between Mr Sofronoff and Ms Albrechtsen took place in private and were not disclosed to the public at large or to Mr Drumgold. Mr Sofronoff provided his private email address to her. Her name and email address were not included on the media distribution list maintained by the Executive arm of the Inquiry.”
This extended beyond the actual report itself to include the disclosure of witness statements and the notice and responses to adverse findings.
Sofronoff’s report would have been junked, as it deservedly should have been.
The Integrity Commission also made stringent findings about Sofronoff’s dealings with the ACT government:
“Quite apart from natural justice, the necessary relationship of candour between the Chair and the Chief Minister required, in all honesty, that Mr Sofronoff should at least have given fair notice of his intention to provide a copy of the Report to journalists before the Chief Minister made it public and to have informed him that he had already provided Ms Albrechtsen with a next- to-completed draft on the previous day. In the circumstance where release to the media was the subject of active consideration, for Mr Sofronoff to have remained silent about what he had done and proposed to do could only be regarded as deceitful.”
Last September Justinian published the extent to which Planet and Cossack were joined-at-the-hip – after a successful application to the ACT Supreme Court for access to the exhibits tendered and read during Drumgold’s judicial review application.
See: Tootsies with Planet Janet
Just as Albrechtsen was extracting information from the vulnerable Walter, she was also massaging his thinking about Drumgold and her unhinged view that the sex offenders pin-up boy, Bruce Lehrmann, should never have been prosecuted.
In the end she betrayed Walt with her “other source” ruse, while he betrayed Drumgold, and was deceitful in his dealings with the ACT government.
Still to emerge: the costs of his almighty fiasco; what happens next for Walter; can the ACT government get its money back?
Sorfonoff v ACT Integrity Commission – application for judicial review