Disgraced NT reality star and sacked NLC member Paul Henwood jailed for child abuse

The court heard how the now 53-year-old sacked NT Northern Land Council member would expose young children to sex workers, violence and drug paraphernalia.

Former reality TV star and sacked member of the Northern Territory’s Northern Land Council Paul Henwood has been sentenced for serious child abuse.

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A sacked member of the Northern Territory’s Northern Land Council and former reality star for a crocodile egg-hunting television show has been sentenced for serious child abuse and negligence offences, as well as sending a photo of his erect penis while on the toilet to two children as he tried to use drugs and cash to solicit a teenage girl.

Paul Henwood, a Muk Muk Marranunggu traditional owner who in 2019 pleaded to then Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion to be reinstated to the NLC, was last week sentenced to a non-parole period of three years and five months for the serious offending in which he also “exposed children to violence, sexual behaviour and drug paraphernalia”.

He pleaded guilty to a total of seven Territory offences, being four counts of failure to provide the necessities of life and three counts of aggravated assault.

He also pleaded guilty to two commonwealth charges, one of use carriage service to procure a person believed to be under 16 years of age – which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison – and one of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication to a person believed to be under 16.

The court heard how Henwood, who has been in custody since his arrest in February 2023, used Instagram that month to message a boy, 11, and a girl, aged 13, who he had been told was a 14-year-old girl, and sent them a photo of him sitting on a toilet with his erect penis the focus of the photo.

“The communication was highly sexualised, and you told the child victim you were looking for a young woman to play with,” judge John Burns said on Wednesday.

“You referred to the child victim as ‘babe’ and asked if she was a virgin” and made other references too graphic to publish, the court heard.

In his messaging, Henwood offered drugs and cash, provided his address and phone number, and said it was his fantasy to “play with a young virgin girl”, before the children blocked him and deleted the messages.

In 2019, former Northern Land Council member Paul Henwood was escorted from a full council meeting at the Mercure Airport Resort by police after being removed from his position on the Darwin Daly Wagait regional council. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

The girl later told police he was following “lots of little girls on Instagram” who were her friends or mutual friends.

For the Territory offences, the court heard how the now 53-year-old would expose young children to sex workers, violence and drug paraphernalia.

For almost four years from 2019 until his arrest, he subjected various children to physical and emotional abuse, where he would repeatedly hit them while calling them various profanities such as “stupid bitch” or “mongrel c..ts”.

Children discovered a “large suitcase with sex toys” and he would throw objects at the children, such as shoes, belts and thick sticks.

Children would sometimes be left without food for two days because he had spent what little money he had on soft drink, coffee and cigarettes.

He once hit a child with a butter knife, which caused the victim to cry and bleed, and he did not take her to the hospital.

Henwood escaped a custodial sentence for the most serious commonwealth offences – where he sent the photo of his erect penis to the two children and attempted to solicit sex for drugs – with a Territory justice suspending his sentence for that specific ­offending.

The court heard that under Territory law, an offender sentenced on a recognisance – a good behaviour agreement to the court – for a child sex matter “does serve some actual time in custody unless exceptional circumstances exist”.

Judge John Burns of the NT ­Supreme Court said “the exceptional circumstances here are that he is being sentenced with regard to a raft of offences, which includes Territory offences, and the requirements of adapting both Territory sentencing legislation and commonwealth sentencing legislation into a coherent sentence which takes into account

the requirements of totality”.

Henwood, who has been in protective custody since his arrest, was given a total effective sentence of six years and two months.

The earliest he will be eligible for parole is July 15, 2026, after serving three years and four months.

He was denied bail on two occasions during his time in custody and upon his release will have to lodge $1000 in security for the duration of the good behaviour bond, which expires on 15 April 2029.