A leading prosecutor admits he should probably not have made "naive" comments when he announced the decision to abandon a planned retrial of Bruce Lehrmann.
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"Cases like this have no winners and losers," ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC told an inquiry on Wednesday.
"They only have losers and losers."
Mr Drumgold expressed regret late on the third day of his evidence to the inquiry, which is examining how authorities handled allegations Mr Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in 2019.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied sexually assaulting his former Liberal Party colleague, and there have been no findings made against him.
On Wednesday, Mr Drumgold was asked to explain the unusual decision he made to public announce why he was discontinuing Mr Lehrmann's case.
He was specifically quizzed about what inquiry chairman Walter Sofronoff KC described as "the last part" of the statement he made in December 2022.
Mr Drumgold said he did not need to be reminded of the statement because it was "burnt in my memory", so the relevant part of his announcement was not displayed on screens at the inquiry.
However, his final words at his press conference related to Ms Higgins.
"Before concluding, during the investigation and trial, as a sexual assault complainant, Ms Higgins has faced a level of personal attack that I have not seen in over 20 years of doing this work," he said at the time.
"She has done so with bravery, grace and dignity, and it is my hope that this will now stop and Ms Higgins will be allowed to heal."
Asked by counsel assisting the inquiry, Erin Longbottom KC, why the relevant part of the statement was "burnt in" his memory, Mr Drumgold replied: "Because I probably shouldn't have done it."
"It was, on my part, naive [to think] that it would have any benefit," Mr Drumgold said.
Pressed to explain further, he said he had been trying to "lighten the load" the announcement was going to have on a "very precarious" Ms Higgins.
"I foolishly thought [the media] might give her a break," he told the inquiry.
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Ms Longbottom questioned whether Mr Drumgold had turned his mind to the impact his public comments would have on Mr Lehrmann, who was entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Earlier in the statement, Mr Drumgold had told reporters he still believed there were reasonable prospects of jury convicting Mr Lehrmann.
On Wednesday, Mr Drumgold said he did not think his public comments "impinged the presumption of innocence".
However, he conceded he had perhaps not considered the impact they would have on Mr Lehrmann as much as he should have.
"I've got sympathy for everybody involved in this case," Mr Drumgold said.
He is expected to continue giving evidence on Thursday.
