Board of Inquiry into the Criminal Justice System
- Report length
- 839 pages
A court has ruled on parts of this report
On 4 March 2024, the ACT Supreme Court handed down its judgment in Drumgold v Board of Inquiry & Ors (No. 3) , which decided an application by Mr Drumgold for judicial review of findings of the Final Report of the Board of Inquiry – Criminal Justice System, dated 31 July 2023 that were adverse to him. Following that judgment, the Court made orders including three declarations favourable to Mr Drumgold in relation to findings adverse to him set out in Chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the Final Report.
ACT Government, Board of Inquiry into the Criminal Justice System
Official source
Summary
The report's own summary: 1. Introduction, pages 7 to 11
Generated summary: written by an AI model from the report text and checked against the cited pages.
The ACT Board of Inquiry examined possible misconduct by police, prosecutors and the Victims of Crime Commissioner in a criminal matter.
The Board found that police had investigated thoroughly, although mistakes caused unnecessary distress without affecting the investigation or prejudicing the case.
The Board also made serious misconduct findings against the then Director of Public Prosecutions, while declining to determine fitness to remain in office or practise as a barrister.
Its ten numbered recommendations address charging decisions, counselling records, disclosure, police dealings with defence lawyers, retrial decisions and complaints between agencies.
Report, page 197 · Report, page 198 · Report, page 199 · Report, page 200 · Report, page 201
In the body's own words
- Finding
Regrettably, I have found it necessary to make several serious findings of misconduct on the part of Mr Shane Drumgold SC, the Director of Public Prosecutions.
- Finding
None of these mistakes actually affected the substance of the investigation and none of them prejudiced the case.
- Recommendation
I recommend that the government, in consultation with stakeholders, enact legislation to codify the scope and content of the obligation of disclosure owed by the Prosecution in criminal proceedings.
Recommendations
No recommendations are reproduced in this record. This does not establish that the report contains none.
About the inquiry
- Chair
- Walter Sofronoff KC Chair Board of Inquiry – Criminal Justice System Report, page 3
- Final report
Official documents 1
Final Report, Board of Inquiry: Criminal Justice System
Document details
- Recommendations status
- Not extracted
- Date as printed
- 31 July 2023 Mr Andrew Barr MLA Report, page 3
- How OPAX got it
- manual publisher download supplied by the OPAX maintainer, 11 Nov 2026
- Rights
- © Australian Capital Territory, Canberra 2023. This work is subject to copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the Territory Records Office (imprint, page 2). OPAX links to the publisher's copy and does not reproduce the report.
Notes on this record
- A board of inquiry under the Inquiries Act 1991 (ACT), not a royal commission; listed here as a comparable public inquiry.
- The ACT Supreme Court has ruled on findings in Chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the final report (see court_context). OPAX presents no finding from this report without that context.
- The ACT Government page linked as a reference also records later matters concerning the Inquiry; read it there.
Coverage
This record
- Recommendations and findings are not loaded from this report. The report is a manual supplement supplied by the OPAX maintainer; the ACT Government page is fetched by OPAXBot.