Ex-Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale pleads guilty to string of charges including corruption, sexual assault

Former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale has pleaded guilty to more than 30 charges including corruption, fraud and sexual assault.

Former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale is seen leaving the District Court in Brisbane. Picture: AAP

Jailed former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale will be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to a string of charges including official corruption, fraud and sexual assault.

The popular Labor politician dubbed “Mr Ipswich” last month pleaded guilty to 27 counts of fraud and one count each of receipt of secret commission by an agent, fraud of property and perjury.

The guilty plea was suppressed by the court and could not be reported until the conclusion of a sexual assault trial that was supposed to take place this week.

On the eve of the trial, Pisasale, 69, told prosecutors he would plead guilty to sexual assault and drug possession charges and the formal plea was entered in the Ipswich District Court on Thursday.

The sexual assault charge related to inappropriate touching of a young woman, who worked for an Ipswich-based charity organisation, within the council chambers in late 2016.

The official corruption charge related to Pisasale’s promise to champion a property development in the Ipswich suburb of Yamanto, for which he would receive a financial kickback.

The former mayor quit the role at a press conference in 2017 where he appeared at a private hospital in a dressing gown and wheelchair and said he was retiring due to health issues cause by multiple sclerosis.

Paul Pisasale does a press conference from his hospital bed at St Andrews Private Hospital in Ipswich. Picture: Tim Marsden

The resignation came a day after his home and office were raided by the Crime and Corruption Commission, which had launched Operation Windage, an investigation into corruption within Ipswich City Council.

The colourful politician had, a month earlier, been stopped at Melbourne airport with $50,000 in cash wrapped in black tissue paper.

Pisasale was sentenced to two years in prison last July for his role in attempting to extort a Sydney taxi driver.

The then mayor had posed as a private investigator to try to convince the taxi driver to hand over money to Chinese escort Yutian Li, who had been in a relationship with the taxi driver.

Pisasale posed as a private investigator in a bid to pressure the taxi driver to reveal that he was married to another woman.

The plot was uncovered by Crime and Corruption Commission detectives who had bugged Pisasale’s phone calls as part of the unrelated corruption investigation.

Li was jailed for 15 months, suspended after seven, while Pisasale’s solicitor Cameron McKenzie was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, suspended after nine.

Pisasale was first elected to the council in 1991 and served four terms as the city’s mayor, regularly winning more than 80 per cent of the vote.