By Riley Walter and Sarah McPhee
A former top NSW prosecutor who was portrayed in the Underbelly television series has been charged with child abuse material-related offences after police allegedly found hundreds of files in his possession.
Paul Anthony Leask, 58, was arrested in a hotel in Sydney’s CBD on Thursday, allegedly with more than 300 files of child abuse material on electronic devices in his possession. A clip-seal bag, believed to contain methamphetamine, and drug paraphernalia were also allegedly found in the hotel room.
Former Crown prosecutor Paul Leask has been charged with child abuse material-related and drug offences.Credit: Facebook
Leask has been charged with two counts of using a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child abuse material, and one count each of using a carriage service to access child abuse material, possessing child abuse material and drug possession.
Leask, a former Crown prosecutor in the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, was refused police bail on Thursday. He did not apply for bail in the Downing Centre Local Court on Friday and his matter was adjourned to March 26.
The charges against Leask, if proven, carry maximum penalties of between two and 10 years’ imprisonment.
An ODPP spokesperson said Leask’s employment formally ended in May last year. He had been on leave since April 2023 and did not return to work.
Federal police allege Leask was identified during their investigations into a United States National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children report of a person uploading child abuse material online. The devices allegedly found in Leask’s possession will be subject to further forensic examination, police said.
Leask was the prosecutor in the 2011 NSW Supreme Court murder trial of crime boss Anthony Perish and his accomplices, which was the subject of the Nine Network’s Underbelly: Badness.
Paul Leask’s role in the prosecution of crime boss Anthony Perish, played by actor Jonathan LaPaglia (above), was portrayed in the fifth season of the Underbelly television series.
It was the fifth season of the Underbelly television series. Leask was played by actor Michael Dorman.
AFP Child Protection Operations Detective Inspector Emmanuel Tsardoulias said procuring, accessing and transmitting child abuse material was “not a victimless crime”.
“Children are not commodities to be used for the abhorrent gratification of sexual predators,” Tsardoulias said.
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