Higgins shown CCTV by police

A top cop has revealed why police showed Brittany Higgins the CCTV of the night she alleged she was raped despite fears it could have “contaminated” her evidence.

Detective Superintendent Scott Moller has told an inquiry into the investigation and prosecution of the matter that it was highly unusual to show a complainant a video of the night in question.

But he said it followed repeated requests from Ms Higgins to see the video and followed police wrestling with the best way to adopt a “victim centric approach”.

“So in a normal investigation, we would never show somebody evidence like that because it might influence their evidence later on in court,’’ he said.

“Under our victim centric model, Ms Higgins continually asked to be shown that video.

“So you know, so troubled by that, we made a decision to show her, but to show her on tape. So we could capture the reaction if you like.

“But again, that’s the struggle we continually try to apply because, you know, wearing our investigators hats we go, ‘No, we should not show that evidence because it might taint it later on down the track’.

“Under a victim centric model we go, ‘Well, this is really important for her to see this. We’re trying to support her. We need to support her.’

“So the decision we made was to support her and show her.”

Inquiry chair Walter Sofronoff asked if this “dilemma” was something that was recognised so that there was information on how to handle it.

“Not that I am aware of,’’ he replied.

Counsel assisting Joshua Jones asked if it might be a better way to avoid potentially tarnishing her memory.

“She had expressed on a number of occasions she’d had a lot to drink and had blacked out and by showing her that video footage, your risked corrupting her evidence about that section of the night,’’ Mr Jones asked.

“Yeah, look. And that was the dilemma that we had really, to be honest,’’ Superintendent Moller said.