The man who prosecuted Bruce Lehrmann suspects a political conspiracy might have been behind what he describes as the "unprecedented passion" of police to make the matter "go away".
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That is what an independent inquiry into the case heard on Wednesday, when ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC continued giving evidence.
The inquiry, led by former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff KC, is examining the conduct of authorities, including Mr Drumgold and police, in connection with Mr Lehrmann's case.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied raping Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in 2019, when the pair were Liberal Party staffers, and there have been no findings made against him.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Erin Longbottom KC, asked Mr Drumgold on Wednesday why he had called for the public probe in a 2022 letter to ACT chief police officer Neil Gaughan.
In response, Mr Drumgold said he believed police had displayed "a passion for this prosecution to fail".
He described being "quite confident the police had lost objectivity", yet "completely blind as to what's going on".
"I'm only seeing what's breaking the surface, but not what's going on underneath," Mr Drumgold said.
"I thought there was enough evidence there to justify an inquiry."
The things that were "breaking the surface", in Mr Drumgold's view, included police allegedly purporting to ask for his advice but in fact seeking his imprimatur not to charge Mr Lehrmann early in the investigation.
After he disagreed with investigators and Mr Lehrmann was charged, he said "so many strange things" occurred.
These included "enthusiastic engagement by a senator", whom Mr Drumgold did not name, and police allegedly aligning themselves with an acquittal.
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Mr Drumgold said these things made him consider the possibility of "federal interference with ACT Policing", and whether the former Coalition government had pressured police to "make the matter go away".
Asked by Ms Longbottom if he believed "a political conspiracy was afoot", Mr Drumgold said he had "not formed a view solidly one way or another".
"But I thought that there were enough instances to make it possible, If not probable," the prosecutor said.
Quizzed about whether he would change anything in his letter to Deputy Commissioner Gaughan, with the benefit of reflection, Mr Drumgold said he could have "couched the language" a bit differently.
But he pre-emptively rejected any suggestion he did not need to raise his concerns, which were based on circumstantial evidence, saying "I didn't think I had a choice".
"After 20 years in this job, this is the last thing I wanted to do," Mr Drumgold told the inquiry.
He expanded on this by saying he had "a reasonably based suspicion" that there had been interference in the case and that the impact of this on Ms Higgins had been detrimental.
Mr Drumgold's evidence continues.
