Contempt charge likely for disgraced Launceston arts patron John Wayne Millwood

Disgraced Launceston arts patron and convicted child sexual abuser John Wayne Millwood is expected to be charged with contempt of court by the Federal Court of Australia.

Portrait John Millwood with his John Glover painting, Twenty Miles from Rome.

Disgraced Launceston arts patron and convicted child sexual abuser John Wayne Millwood is expected to be charged with contempt of court by the Federal Court of Australia.

On Thursday, barrister Elizabeth Bennett SC appeared in the court on behalf of the victim-survivor, requesting that Millwood be charged with contempt.

The details of the alleged contempt were not read out in court, but is understood to relate to Millwood’s alleged conduct in a Federal Court hearing in Hobart last year.

Justice Stewart Anderson directed the court registrar to lay the charge.

“The registrar will now bring a proceeding, pursuant to the orders that I’ve made, for contempt,” he said.

Millwood’s lawyer said his client preserved the right to object to any evidence tendered before the court.

“Your client is under no obligation in any way to respond to the material presented,” Justice Anderson replied.

“Your client is entitled to the presumption of innocence and is entitled to remain silent should he choose to do so.”

The matter will return to court at a future date.

The contempt matter has added yet another string of complexity to Millwood’s wider legal sagas, which have now waged on through the court system for years.

It started in December 2016, when the former Launceston Pathology practice boss was jailed for sexually abusing a child in Launceston under the guise of carrying out medical examinations between 1983 to 1989.

The case made headlines as Millwood had honorary titles stripped from his name, and he was subsequently barred by the Parole Board of Tasmania from ever returning to Launceston.

While he was released from Risdon Prison in March 2019, Millwood’s years of stalking, harassing, threatening and “gaslighting” his victim since 1999 soon came back before the courts.

Following a civil battle over not only the abuse, but also the aggravating post-abuse conduct, Millwood was ordered in December 2021 by the Supreme Court of Tasmania to pay his victim a record-breaking $5.3m – for pain and suffering, past and future medical and therapeutic expenses and loss of past and future earnings.

It was expected Millwood would have to dip into his priceless art collection to pay the damages sum, believed to be the highest on record at the time in Australian history, with expectations he could sell off works by the likes of John Glover, Tom Roberts, Frederick Strange and Thomas Bock.

But the victim-survivor has still not received a cent, with Millwood having divested his multimillion-dollar portfolio of Launceston homes, his colonial art collection, company shares and superannuation, and declaring himself bankrupt.

Millwood has denied any wrongdoing or that he took these actions to block a pending damages claim from his victim, claiming he only divested his assets as he thought he would die in prison from prostate cancer so needed to get his “affairs in order”.

The Federal Court of Australia has been hearing an ongoing case brought by bankruptcy trustee Sheahan Lock Partners against Millwood’s bankrupt estate, in an attempt to recover Millwood’s assets through the court so the victim can be paid.

Follow @ambervwilson

Originally published as Contempt charge likely for disgraced Launceston arts patron John Wayne Millwood