Ron Brierley charged with possessing child abuse material
The 87-year-old former corporate titan was arrested on Tuesday morning and has faced court.
Former corporate titan Ron Brierley has been charged with fresh child abuse material offences.
The 87-year-old was arrested on Tuesday morning and faced Waverley Local Court where he was granted bail.
Brierley, a former head of the Bank of New Zealand and ex-SCG Trust board member, was charged with three counts of possessing child abuse material.
As per his bail conditions, he is “not to have any device capable of accessing the internet in his residence unless the device is in the personal custody of either his solicitor … with the exception of digital television, digital radio or digital kitchen appliances”.
Brierley’s spectacular fall from grace began when he was stopped at Sydney Airport en route to Fiji in December 2019, caught with thousands of images on his laptop and two USBs.
Thousands more images were found when police searched his Point Piper home by police.
In October 2021, he was sentenced to a seven month non-parole period in prison after pleading guilty to three charges of possessing child abuse material.
The files discovered did not depict children engaged in sexual acts but did depict children as young as four – with Brierley admitting he used the images for his own sexual gratification. A judge rejected his claims he did not know the images were illegal.
Four months later, he successfully appealed his initial sentence, and was re-sentenced to four months non-parole. He was released from prison.
At the time, the NSW Supreme Court heard he was “a person in extreme ill health, in isolation within the general prison population” with Justice Des Fagan concluding that “the resources of Justice Health to deal with a geriatric prisoner are stretched beyond capability, at least with respect to this man”.
During the ensuing fallout, Brierley’s name was struck off from buildings and schools and he was stripped of his 1988 knighthood.
On Tuesday, he is excused from attending the court in person if represented by a lawyer on the next occasion, March 25.
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