List: Qld public servants who faced court since 2024
They’re our police officers, teachers and firefighters – but this lot found themselves on the wrong side of the law. SEE THE LIST
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They’re our police officers, teachers and firefighters – but this lot found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
See the full list of public servants who faced court below >>>
Damian Craig Jackson
A former Education Department and Corrective Services worker and principal architect of Personalised Plates Queensland was in January 2025 jailed after being caught with more than 2000 child exploitation material files involving hundreds in the worst category.
Police raided Damian Craig Jackson’s Upper Kedron home in August 2023 seizing a laptop that continued 1741 unique child abuse images and 129 videos depicting child exploitation material, Brisbane’s District Court heard.
The offending had occurred over five days that month and involved 619 images and 108 videos that were deemed to be of the worst kind, the court heard.
Most of the children were between seven and 12 but some were as young as four.
Jackson, 43, who was the principal architect/technical director at Personalised Plates Queensland until he was charged, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to access child abuse material and possessing child exploitation material.
Barrister Timothy Wise, instructed by Beavon Lawyers, said his client was remorseful and had insight into his offending which was accepted by Judge Jennifer Rosengren.
He highlighted Jackson’s early guilty plea, absence of a criminal record, short offending period and good work history.
Jackson was sentenced to 18 months jail to be suspended after four months, two years of probation and a three year $500 good behaviour bond.
■ Qld’s history of public servant battles
Sidney Ricky Bassett Shanks
A “high level” bureaucrat who worked for Queensland Treasury and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet was in November 2024 jailed on child exploitation charges.
Economist Sidney Ricky Bassett Shanks, 60, pleaded guilty in Brisbane’s District Court to one count each of possessing, making and distributing child exploitation material, three counts of indecent treatment of children under 16, and two counts of stalking.
Police raided Shanks’ Coorparoo home and located about 730 child exploitation images and 27 videos, the court heard.
Shanks also operated a number of social media accounts displaying images of women in bikinis and sexualised positions whose heads had been replaced with the faces of two females including an adult neighbour and the other a child, the court heard.
Shanks’ barrister John Fraser said his client had no criminal history at the time and had worked at a “pretty high level”.
Judge Paul Smith said there were some indications of a lack of insight but he regarded the apology letter as genuine and accepted it was out of character behaviour.
Shanks was jailed for three years with the sentence to be suspended after six months.
Roland Hirokazu Simons
A “greedy” senior Education Department official who secretly pocketed $192,000 in kickbacks and claimed his culpability was lower because of “undiagnosed autism” was in May 2024 jailed for at least 18 months.
Roland Hirokazu Simons, 52, appeared before District Court Judge John Allen in Brisbane where he pleaded guilty to 11 criminal charges including two counts of corruption.
Crown Prosecutor David Nardone submitted that Simons received a total of $192,000 including a $145,824 kickback from co-accused Michael John Pomplun – an old school friend – and a $30,360 payment on which the fraud charge is based which relates to an opinion survey business called School Measures.
Simons, who has a PhD and held the title of “director of performance monitoring and reporting” within the department, pleaded guilty to eight counts of misconduct in public office, two counts of corruption and one count of fraud as an employee worth $30,000 or more.
Judge Allen sentenced Simons to a six-year head sentence, with parole eligibility after 18 months, telling him he accepted his moral culpability for his crimes was “marginally less” than that of a normal person because of his undiagnosed mental health disorders, and that his personality may make him vulnerable in prison.
Peter Colin Davidson
An ex-cop who admitted stealing from a motorist during a search, then lying to try to cover up his crime, hugged his crying wife goodbye in court in emotional scenes after he was sentenced to jail.
Peter Colin Davidson, 41, appeared in the District Court in Brisbane in May 2024 before Judge Deborah Richards where he pleaded guilty to stealing in excess of $20 as a public service employee and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
In sentencing him to a head-sentence of two-and-a-half years in prison, Judge Richards told the father-of-four that his actions in abusing the community’s trust were “calculated”.
Davidson, who has now turned to goat farming and wedding video work, stole more than $20 but possibly more from a man’s wallet which he found in the glove box of the man’s car when he searched it on the side of the road in Oxley in the early hours of March 17, 2022.
His attempt to cover-up his crime lasted seven days and he provided a false summary of interviews with the victim and his friends which was put into the police database.
Judge Richards sentenced Davidson to two-and-a-half years’ jail for the attempt to pervert the course of justice and 18 months’ for stealing.
She set a parole release date of November 21, 2024.
Briohny Lee Granzien
A former Brisbane police officer was in July 2024 given a suspended prison sentence for leaking police secrets to a number of “old friends” – including two ex-boyfriends.
Briohny Lee Granzien, 44, shared restricted police information with three different individuals between July 2015 and February 2021, the Brisbane Magistrates’ Court heard at her sentencing.
The court heard Granzien first shared information in March 2015 with a man she had been in a relationship with a number of years earlier.
Crown prosecutor Cameron Wilkins said the man had been under investigation in 2015 in relation to an alleged assault incident at the German Club in Woolloongabba.
The court heard Granzien, who became a police officer in 2014, conducted two searches on police database QPRIME relating to the incident.
The complainant later withdrew his statement to police.
Defence barrister Craig Eberhardt noted it wasn’t suggested that Granzien’s actions caused the complainant to withdraw his statement.
The court heard Granzien had shared police information with the same former boyfriend in 2019 and 2020.
Granzien pleaded guilty on July 22 to two counts of disclosing official secrets and four counts of using a restricted computer without consent and cause or intent to cause damage, detriment, or gain.
Granzien was sentenced to four months’ jail, wholly suspended for 18 months.
Kellie Ann-Marie Whiteside
A female teacher who sexually abused a little girl from the age of 12 was in March 2025 jailed.
Kellie Ann-Marie Whiteside (nee Baynham), 44, pleaded guilty in Brisbane’s District Court to repeated sexual conduct with a child from 2015 to 2018.
The court heard the then married teacher engaged in sexual acts with the victim, who she at times plied with alcohol, over the three year indictment period.
At the time the child was particularly vulnerable, due to personal issues, including the breakdown of her parents’ marriage. So young that she didn’t understand the sexual talk the perpetrator was engaging in, Whiteside told her to watch porn to learn about sex.
The victim came to believe she was Whiteside’s wife and the stepmother of her children.
Whiteside’s barrister James McNab said his client was genuinely remorseful, had no criminal history, co-operated with police, pleaded guilty early and would not work as a teacher again.
Prosecution dropped 29 counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 relating to the victim, essentially particulars of the substantive charge, on Whiteside’s plea of guilty.
Chief Judge Brian Devereaux sentenced Whiteside to five years jail.
He accepted she was remorseful and her early plea had spared the victim and family from a trial along with taking steps towards rehabilitation.
Parole eligibility was set at March 17, 2027.
Volunteer firefighter
A former volunteer firefighter was in March 2025 jailed for sexual acts against two young girls.
The Queensland man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced in Rockhampton District Court where he pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent treatment of children.
Judge Jeff Clarke said the man sexually touched the first victim for about 10 minutes while watching television.
Defence barrister Julie Marsden said her client had been honoured for his volunteer firefighting, had contributed to the community and was of “good character” other than this offending.
“They often are,” Judge Clarke said. “That’s the double life they often lead.”
Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence said there was no mention of this offending in one of the character reference letters provided to the court and the other did not mention if the letter writer was aware the defendant was pleading guilty to charges of sexually abusing children.
Ms Marsden said her client had worked in the building industry.
She said he had been “a bit of a rogue” “rebelling against everything” in his younger years.
Judge Clarke sentenced the man to 18-months prison, suspended after serving six-months in prison with a three-year operational period.
Brandon Kenneth Frances
A court clerk who hocked work computers to pawn brokers for small loans due to a “crippling” gambling addiction potentially exposed details of employees up to the Chief Justice in the process, a court heard in May 2024.
Former Brisbane Magistrates Court employee Brandon Kenneth Frances, 29, faced his old workplace and pleaded guilty to five counts of stealing by person in the public service and three counts of fraud.
The court heard that between July 2022 and May 2023 Frances stole five laptops belonging to the Justice Department and on 21 occasions used them as collateral for $120 loans at Cash Converters which he then repaid on payday. The computers were returned and the department suffered no financial loss.
But Magistrate Ross Mack pointed out that by giving his computer password to Cash Converters he was exposing sensitive data.
Barrister Jack Kennedy said his client was significantly in debt due to gambling which he ploughed most of his pay into.
Mr Kennedy said his client was remorseful and had shown insight into his offending and had since stopped gambling.
Frances was sentenced to 12 months prison wholly suspended and ordered to undertake 200 hours of community service.
Mark Roche
Suspended paramedic Mark Shane Roche was in May 2025 jailed after depicting himself masturbating to child exploitation material.
He pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to access child abuse material and two counts of making child exploitation material in Brisbane District Court.
The court heard that Roche accessed 12 images involving child victims as young as four years old, in which one depicted raping a girl.
While he was released on bail, police found a journal at his home with “highly explicit stories” about the rape and sexual assault of young children.
The court was told Roche began the “journalling” at the suggestion of a psychologist treating him for severe childhood trauma.
The court also heard he was suspended from his Queensland Ambulance Services position for 18 years after he was arrested in 2022.
He was sentenced to two-and-a-half-years jail, suspended after four months, and was ordered to enter a $500 good behaviour bond, alongside two years of probation.
James Christopher Goodall
A counter-terrorism officer was in April 2025 jailed over years long sexually exploitative online conduct with a child before he joined the Australian Federal Police.
Former sworn AFP officer James Christopher Goodall, 29, pleaded guilty to using a carriage serviced to procure a person under 16 to engage in sexual activity, using a carriage service to cause child pornography material to be transmitted to self and using a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted to self.
The offending conduct occurred from August 2017 to August 2020 starting when Goodall, who had no prior criminal history, was aged 21 and the victim was 13. Months after the offending ceased he was accepted into the AFP.
The two met online and started a friendship that soon turned highly sexualised with Goodall requesting videos from the victim that included her naked and performing sexual acts.
Brisbane’s District Court heard he made the victim promise that it was kept private between themselves and that she could not tell anyone else.
Goodall was sentenced to three years and six months with a non-parole period of nine months.
Glenn Norman Christofferson
A former Queensland school teacher was in September 2024 sentenced after he came forward with a confession about the indecent treatment of one of his female students.
Glenn Norman Christofferson, 52, was sentenced in the District Court at Gladstone after pleading guilty to indecent treatment of a child under 12.
The court heard the offence was committed in 2006 when Christofferson, then 34, was a school teacher in Queensland and the victim was a nine-year-old female student.
It was told the girl had approached Christofferson to show him her shoes, and she lifted her right foot to do so.
“You grabbed her leg and lifted it higher and ran your hand underneath her school uniform and rubbed her upper thigh,” Judge Vicki Loury said.
The court heard Christofferson was charged in December 2006 but proceedings were discontinued in March 2008 as a result of a ruling in a pre-trial hearing.
In September 2023, a statement was taken from the complainant at the instigation of police or the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In October 2023, police spoke to Christofferson and he admitted the offending, the court heard.
Judge Loury sentenced Christofferson to six months’ jail, suspended after serving two months, for an operational period of 12 months.
She declared two months’ pre-sentence custody as time already served under this sentence.
*Information correct but could be subject to appeals
Originally published as List: Qld public servants who faced court since 2024
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