A senior police officer says she advised her staff to avoid talking to Bruce Lehrmann's lawyers during his trial because she was worried about feeding "conspiratorial ideas".
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Australian Federal Police acting assistant commissioner Joanne Cameron took the stand on Thursday at an inquiry that is examining the actions of authorities in connection with Mr Lehrmann's case.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied allegations he raped fellow former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in March 2019.
His trial was aborted because of juror misconduct before the charge levelled at him was discontinued.
On Thursday, Commander Cameron gave evidence about Mr Lehrmann's defence barrister, Steven Whybrow SC, having approached Detective Superintendent Scott Moller during the trial.
Detective Superintendent Moller, who was a potential witness at the time, advised her of the approach.
Commander Cameron's diary notes show she took a view that members of the defence team approaching police officers during the trial was "not appropriate, at the very least from perceptions".
She phoned ACT chief police officer Neil Gaughan, who agreed with her position.
Commander Cameron said she then communicated that back to Detective Superintendent Moller.
The next morning, she followed up with an email in which she told Detective Superintendent Moller and another senior officer she did not want police witnesses talking to defence counsel before giving evidence.
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She also asked those officers to "ensure everyone is clear on this".
Eleanor Lynch, counsel assisting the inquiry, asked Commander Cameron on Thursday to explain what she had in mind at the time.
"Top of mind was the perception that police were somehow colluding with defence to bring favour to their approach to the prosecution," Commander Cameron replied.
While she told the inquiry such beliefs would have been "baseless", she feared "others would make a judgement, unfairly, against my officers" if they found out police had been speaking to defence lawyers.
Commander Cameron said there were already criticisms of police conduct "floating around" at the time.
"Those sorts of interactions [were] potentially building these conspiratorial ideas ... and that concerned me," she said.
Inquiry chairman Walter Sofronoff KC asked Commander Cameron if she was also conscious staff from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions might think "police were getting too cosy with the defence".
"Yes, that would be correct," Commander Cameron replied.
Commander Cameron's evidence is set to continue on Friday.
