'Evasive, uncooperative and manipulative'

There were media reports of a "secret" meeting held earlier that morning. It's interesting to note that on two previous occasions, Lehrmann's lawyers attended hearings before the Chief Justice seeking applications for a stay of the proceedings – the first was turned down, and the second, seeking a temporary stay after Lisa Wilkinson's Logies' speech, was approved.

What is remarkable is the lack of media scrutiny into Drumgold's claim that he was dropping the case because of Higgins' mental health. The media cheer squad for Higgins dutifully reported her happily attending her degree ceremony within weeks of the trial, and her boyfriend boasting that she had written four academic papers during the court proceedings. She was photographed holidaying in the Maldives and announcing her plans to do a new degree. Most extraordinary of all, she used social media to offer to appear as a witness in the defamation cases launched by Lehrmann.

Social media was full of speculation about this miraculous recovery, but such troubling questions rarely featured in the legacy media's celebratory stories applauding her ongoing achievements. No journalists asked why it was that the DPP didn't simply postpone the case until Higgins recovered, or pointed out that the ACT was changing its laws to ensure witnesses in sexual assault cases could give evidence via video link and that the trial of Lehrmann could have waited until then to reduce the strain.

Equally, it is quite remarkable how little public attention has been paid to the legal basis for the DPP's decision to drop the case. Normally the major reason to discontinue criminal proceedings is that there is no reasonable prospect of conviction. Yet in his press conference announcing his decision, Drumgold expressly stated that he had "a clear view there was a reasonable prospect of conviction" before the start of the trial and this is a view he "still holds today".

This makes no sense, as pointed out by a few brave lawyers on Twitter, like prominent Sydney barrister Gray Connolly who described Mr Drumgold as "a DPP (who) trashes centuries of prosecutorial ethics and obligations, by simultaneously withdrawing a criminal prosecution in the court and then tries to continue it in the media…. It is simply horrific."

Central to Sofronoff's job is to consider those prosecutorial ethics and obligations and see how Drumgold shaped up. Perhaps the limelight loving DPP might find his moment in the sun is coming to an abrupt close.