'Inappropriate'

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Lewellyn has labelled as "inappropriate" former Deputy DPP Dirk Harrison's use of the official letterhead of that office to write a recommendation in his personal capacity.

In a response to criticisms of him by former National Security Minister Robert Montague in Parliament days ago, the former Deputy DPP had indicated that he had written a letter of recommendation in support of an application for a firearm by someone who had earlier been convicted, having lost his licensed gun after a thief broke into his car. He indicated that he had written the letter on the letterhead of the Office of the DPP as that was the office from which he functioned at the time.

However, in a release issued yesterday, the DPP indicated that she was unaware of the letter of recommendation prior to this week but she has now seen it and identified the letterhead and the signature of Harrison. She made it clear that she would not have sanctioned it.

"This course of conduct would never have been approved by me as DPP," Llewellyn said.

She went on to outline the appropriate use of the office's stationery.

"The official letterhead correspondence is used by Crown Counsel to conduct the official business of the ODPP. Our office does not issue letters of recommendation in respect of persons wishing to pursue their personal endeavours including the application for a firearm user’s licence. That is not a part of our standard operating procedures as prosecutors in a public office. The letterhead bears the imprimatur or approval of the DPP in whose name all prosecutions are conducted and on whose behalf all prosecutors act, which is why it should be strictly used for the business of the office."

She sought to reinforce that her office needed to be careful to act professionally and transparently so as not to undermine its credibility or bring it into disrepute.

She went further to suggest that she considered it inappropriate for any "agent of the DPP under the Constitution, whether in their private or public capacity, to issue a recommendation for a convicted person to an agency outside of their work process".