Devastated. Absolutely devastated. Fearing for the safety of his family.

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That was 2023. Shane Drumgold, then the ACT's director of public prosecution, was the target of a series of stories published in The Australian. The point of the stories? To my mind it was to paint Drumgold as biased in his role as prosecutor in the case of Brittany Higgins and her accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann.

Drumgold knew it was coming. In May 2021, the dedicated lawyer woke to these words: "Shane Drumgold SC might not be a household name. But he soon will be." He had seen The Australian at work over decades and seen the patterns. This was it - not just one story but multiple: "It means that over the hill there is an attack coming and there is nothing you can do about it."

His wife, Tash Drumgold, a mental health clinician, his four adult kids - they were all so worried about him.

"That caused me concern," says Drumgold now.

News Corp publications such as The Australian seemed to be of the view that Higgins was an unreliable liar and Lehrmann was a good guy, wrongly charged. Drumgold, they implied, had been sucked in by Higgins.

No mention that Drumgold had been advocating for fairer and more just treatment for sexual assault victims over a decade in the ACT system. No mention that only three of 100 victims of sexual assault ever get to a trial. He says justice is served if you get that far - but too many women don't ever report.

Drumgold himself had called for an inquiry after the on-again-off-again trial. During that inquiry, led by Walter Sofronoff, the News Corp publication ran 40 articles critical of the case against Lehrmann. The day Sofronoff's report, highly critical of Drumgold, was leaked to The Australian's Janet Albrechtsen, there were, he says, maybe 10 or 15 members of the media outside his house from early in the morning.

How they knew where Drumgold lived remains a mystery to this day. He's not on any electoral roles - but someone chose to put his family at risk that day.

"Nobody could come and go. They were ringing the doorbell every five minutes ... walking around the........

© Canberra Times