An investigator heavily involved in the Bruce Lehrmann case has admitted there is "confusion" among police officers in terms of when a suspect should be charged in the ACT.
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Senior Constable Emma Frizzell also conceded on Thursday that her understanding of the relevant legal threshold had been wrong.
The ACT Policing officer took the witness stand at an independent inquiry into the case of Mr Lehrmann, who has always denied raping fellow former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins at Parliament House.
After juror misconduct caused a mistrial last year, the charge levelled at Mr Lehrmann was abandoned.
The current inquiry into the case is scrutinising the actions of police, Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC and Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates.
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In his evidence to the inquiry, Mr Drumgold expressed concerns one of the reasons for the reluctance was that police were only charging where they believed there was a reasonable prospect of conviction.
He said this was in fact something for prosecutors to consider before taking a matter to trial.
Mr Drumgold indicated the police test for charging was outlined in case law that only required reasonable suspicion of an offence.
The top prosecutor's barrister, Mark Tedeschi KC, asked Senior Constable Frizzell about this on Thursday.
He noted Senior Constable Frizzell had said, in a written statement to the inquiry, that she believed police were to charge in circumstances where they believed there was evidence to support a conviction.
Senior Constable Frizzell conceded that, having watched earlier parts of the inquiry, what she had written about the threshold was "not right".
Mr Tedeschi asked Senior Constable Frizzell if there was still "confusion or disagreement" among police officers about when to charge a suspect.
The officer replied: "Yes, I would say that there is."
Investigators 'lost confidence'
Senior Constable Frizzell, who has started but not finished training to be a detective, also described how members of ACT Policing's sexual assault and child abuse team were affected by an internal review of the unit's cases.
In her written statement, she said investigators had "lost confidence in their decision-making" as a result.
That situation was said to have been "exacerbated" last year by the introduction of an oversight committee, which required superintendents to sign off on any decision to finalise an investigation without a charge.
Such decisions were previously authorised at a much lower level, by a sergeant.
Mr Tedeschi suggested sexual assault and child abuse team members viewed Mr Drumgold, who had raised concerns about perceived undercharging of suspects, as the primary cause of these changes.
Senior Constable Frizzell denied that was the case.
Acquittals 'devastating' for complainants
A November 2021 meeting between police and two senior prosecutors was also discussed on Thursday.
The inquiry heard the prosecutors had tried to explain the charging threshold to police, and that they had told officers an interview with an alleged victim would, in some cases, be enough to lay a charge.
Senior Constable Frizzell told the inquiry she was concerned about this because she had been involved in cases where she had "more than just a statement", but the suspect had been found not guilty.
Having seen the "devastating" impact acquittals could have on complainants, she indicated she was worried about putting matters before courts in cases where there was no corroborative evidence.
Investigators 'young, inexperienced'
Senior Constable Frizzell's evidence follows one of her superiors describing the sexual assault and child abuse team on Wednesday as a "training ground for budding detectives".
Detective Superintendent Moller revealed his concerns about the team primarily being made up of "young, inexperienced" officers, saying this had increased pressure on senior police.
He acknowledged that of the roughly 27 members of the team, only four had completed the Australian Federal Police detective training program.
Even fewer had done specialist sexual assault investigation training, the inquiry was told.
