A collective show of support for NSW DPP Sally Dowling has raised questions about whether senior prosecutors used the authority of public office for a personal and political purpose.

‘They’re as thick as thieves.’

That lovely 19th-century London expression has moved through time to simply mean people who are exceedingly close – those who would pretty much do anything for each other.

But how close is too close, especially when it comes to those entrusted to prosecute the thieves and all the others accused of anything on the criminal calendar?

Independent ACT MLA Thomas Emerson pursued this point with the ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel SC, during an Estimates Committee hearing on 4 August. Engel’s answers have been slammed by the prominent NSW parliamentarian Stephen Lawrence, who said Engel had embroiled her office in the irrelevant affairs of another jurisdiction, using that authority to try to influence parliamentary matters for no bigger purpose than supporting a professional mate.

Emerson asked Engel why she had committed her office to a statement that endorsed NSW DPP Sally Dowling SC just before a NSW parliamentary committee found, by 4–3 vote, that Dowling had lied in her evidence before it.

The statement was signed by all state and territory DPPs – who are now all being pursued forensically by Lawrence to reveal all the collaborations behind the statement’s preparation.

Emerson asked Engel: “What judgment was made by you as to whether this is part of your role as the ACT’s DPP, to use the authority of your office in that way?”

Engel described the statement as “a show of support” for Dowling, one that had been made privately to NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley, but which had been leaked.

“…as DPPs, we have an acute understanding of both the privilege but the heavy responsibility that these roles occupy,” Engel........

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