Ron Brierley ‘scrubbed out’ after being caught with child abuse images

Corporate raider Ron Brierley has been stripped of his knighthood in a complete fall from grace - but prosecutors are calling on a judge to reject one major claim made by the businessman.

As millionaire businessman Ron Brierley basked in the glow of public success he was hiding a dark secret - a taste for pre-pubescent girls.

Now the corporate icon’s lawyers want him spared prison - but police prosecutors reject his claims he didn’t know confronting child abuse images were illegal.

Brierley, 84, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child abuse material after he was found with thousands of images on computer hard drives.

Ron Brierley leaves the Downing Centre Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Australian Border Force officers had uncovered the images, mostly of children aged around 11-years-old, in his carry-on luggage as he prepared to board a holiday flight to Fiji.

Some of the girls were much younger, the NSW District Court heard on Friday, and “there are many” victims in Brierley’s files.

Brierley’s success brought fame and power, but his success has also made his fall from grace an extremely public affair, the court heard.

The New Zealand-born Brierley lost his knightship, has had his name “scrubbed” from cricket pavilions, and has become a social pariah, his barrister Tim Game SC said.

“Public recognition was a terribly important part of his own life and his image of himself,” Mr Game said.

“The downfall has been complete to the point donations are not accepted or returned if given.”

Mr Game said Brierley had dealt with his attraction to pre-pubescent girls for many years and it was a “significant affliction” and “disorder” for the businessman.

“He has kept this to himself and has been troubled by it for a long period of time,” Mr Game said.

“Maybe because he’s been forced to - he does appreciate the seriousness of the wrong done.”

The court has previously heard Brierley believed the images were “perfectly okay”, available online and he looked at them for “recreation”.

Crown Prosecutor Sean Hughes urged Judge Sarah Huggett to reject any claim Brierley thought the images were legal.

“(The court should reject) the high-functioning Mr Brierley did not know that, at the very least, the image of the pubescent girl exposing her anus and genitals in a sexualised pose was other than illegal,” he said.

Brierley is asking the judge to allow him to serve his time in the community on a release order.

Prosecutors acknowledge there won’t be a lengthy time in prison but said these were “real girls” in the images collected by Birerley and punishment would be needed to send a message to others.

“A message has to be sent to those in the community who sit in a darkened room with little fear of being caught that, if they are caught, they will be properly denounced,” Mr Hughes said.

“Not by being stripped of their knighthood - but properly denounced by way of a meaningful, substantial penalty.”

“They should expect a jail sentence, a heavy jail sentence.”

Brierley’s lawyers say he has suffered significant cognitive decline since the arrest in 2019 and he requires his vast resources to keep himself functioning.

He has the beginnings of dementia and vascular disease, Mr Game said, and has moved away from positions of responsibility.

Brierley did not appear in the Sydney court in person - neither did any of the lawyers - because the city’s coronavirus pandemic has forced all hearings to be conducted remotely.

Brierley will be sentenced in October and will remain on bail until then.