Ronald Brierley: Disgraced businessman begs not to be jailed over child abuse material stash

Former knight and disgraced businessman Ronald Brierley has begged not to be sent to jail as it’s revealed what was inside his vile child abuse material stash.

Disgraced former business titan Ronald Brierley says he did not know he was doing anything wrong when he amassed a cache of child abuse material as he asked not to be sent to jail, a court has been told.

However, the prosecution has attacked the 84-year-old’s suggestion that he did not know the images were illegal, pointing out he was found with a picture of a young girl exposing her genitalia.

The New Zealand-born corporate raider is facing up to 10 years in jail after being caught with a trove of child abuse images on his laptop when he was stopped at Sydney Airport in 2019.

Brierley has suffered a dramatic fall from grace since being charged, including being forced to forfeit his knighthood.

His barrister on Friday told a sentence hearing in Sydney’s Downing Centre District that Brierley had become a social pariah, including having his name scrubbed from public buildings and schools.

Tim Game told Judge Sarah Huggett that the ailing Brierley should not be sent to jail because of his health, detailing how he is suffering the onset of dementia and severe coronary artery disease.

Ron Brierley has admitted to possessing child abuse material. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett.

Brierley was en route to Fiji when he was stopped by Australian Border Force officers on December 17, 2019.

They discovered a trove of 11,756 images of child abuse material on his laptop and two USBs.

He also had in his possession sexually explicit stories that described the abuse of children.

“I reckon they’re all, they are perfectly OK,” Brierley told officers, according to an agreed statement of facts.

He also added he looked at them for “recreation” and found them “interesting”.

When police raided his Point Piper home, they found a further 35,030 images of child abuse material on his laptop and USBs.

It’s not known exactly how many pieces of child abuse material were in his possession because many were duplicates that had been collected over many years.

Mr Game told the court that the former head of the Bank of New Zealand and ex-SCG Trust board member “should have known better”, but it was his belief that the images were not illegal.

That prompted a sharp retort from crown prosecutor Sean Hughes, who argued that Brierley should be sent to jail to send a message to those who “sit in dark rooms” viewing child abuse material thinking they do so with impunity.

“The possession of child abuse material is always wrong and in any circumstances it’s unlawful,” Mr Hughes said.

Ron Brierley being knighted by Governor-General Paul Reeves in May 1988. He has since forfeited the honour. Picture: Wikipedia.

“I submit that your honour would not accept that a high-functioning Mr Brierley did not know that the image of the pre-pubescent girl exposing her anus and genitalia in a sexualised pose was anything other than illegal,” he said.

The court was told that a majority of the images were on the lower end of seriousness.

Brierley had 49,795 images in his possession, with all, except one, being “category 2” images that depicted female children in clothing, swimwear or underwear in sexualised poses.

According to the statement of agreed facts, none of the images depicted cruelty, torture or the children engaged in sexual acts.

There was a single category 1 image of a naked child.

Mr Hughes said possessing child abuse material was “not a victimless crime” because it involved the exploitation of real young people.

Mr Game said Brierley would likely have to go into protective custody or an aged care facility if he were to be jailed, arguing a community corrections order to be served in the community should be imposed.

“Mr Brierley’s fall from grace has been radical,” Mr Game said.

Ron Brierley in his prime in 1989. Picture: Supplied

“Among other things he lost his knighthood.

“Although he is a stoic individual. Although he appears to have outwardly taken it on the chin, public recognition was a terribly important part of his life and image of himself.

“The downfall has been complete and to the point donations were not accepted or even returned … He’s gone from a person who’s regarded with the highest respect to someone who’s a social pariah.”

Mr Game said Brierley had been diagnosed by two psychiatrists as suffering from a hoarding disorder that was connected to, and played a part in, his offending.

“He has been described (by his psychiatrist) as a shocking hoarder,” Mr Game said.

“He has large collections of other things like newspaper cuttings and stamps.”

Brierley did not give evidence during his 2½ hour sentence hearing on Friday, watching on from his barrister’s chambers via videolink.

Judge Huggett said she “does not know what the result will be” of her judgment and he could be sentenced to jail.

She ordered him to appear in person at his sentencing on October 14.