Ron Brierley, pictured outside a Sydney court in February 2020, is facing three fresh charges of possessing child abuse material. Photo / Getty Images
Ron Brierley, pictured outside a Sydney court in February 2020, is facing three fresh charges of possessing child abuse material. Photo / Getty Images
New Zealand businessman Ron Brierley is facing three fresh charges of possessing child abuse material after an appearance in court in Australia today.
Aged 87, Brierley appeared in the Waverley Local Court in Sydney this afternoon following his arrest by police this morning.
The multi-millionaire was granted bail on conditionhe stay at his home on Sydney’s waterfront and not have in his possession any device capable of accessing the internet other than a digital television, radio or kitchen appliances.
The new charges follow Brierley’s fall from grace after being stopped at Sydney International Airport in 2019.
His devices were searched and he was charged with possessing more than 11,000 images of girls aged 4-15.
In 2021, Brierley pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child sexual exploitation material and spent four months of a 14-month sentence in prison.
He served the remainder of his sentence at home after suffering poor health in prison.
In the wake of his conviction, he was stripped of his knighthood.
At the time, Brierley cut a frail figure when he appeared in court, needing a cane for support.
Ron Brierley in central Sydney following a court appearance in 2021. Photo / Liam Mendes
He has never spoken about the charges, often wearing a surgical mask outside the courtroom.
It was a contrast to the towering figure Brierley cut in the business world. He set up Brierley Investments Limited in 1961 and led the company to become the largest in New Zealand by the mid-1980s.
The company returns were such that, with a booming sharemarket, mum-and-dad investors flocked to invest.
The company, at its peak, boasted 160,000 shareholders and held investments in companies across the world.
Brierley was known for identifying companies that were asset-rich with thin profit margins, developing a reputation for asset stripping and corporate restructuring.
Brierley took on Sydney in the late 1960s and established a fresh base and new fortunes across the Tasman.
Yet he retained meaningful links in New Zealand – connections which began to fray after his 2019 arrest and subsequent conviction.
A longtime supporter of Wellington College, Brierley’s donations to the school were rejected on conviction and his name removed from buildings on the campus. Cricket Wellington also began examining the removal of his life membership.
The downfall began with his planned trip in 2019 – a December 19 flight from Sydney to Fiji.
As Brierley crossed into the departure area of Sydney International Airport, Australian Border Force officials stopped him and said they would be searching his devices.
The officials had been waiting for the tycoon to enter an area where no warrant was needed to carry out a search.
Brierley’s hand luggage held a laptop and two electronic storage devices. On those, border officials found child sexual abuse material.
“I reckon they’re all ... perfectly okay,” Brierley told police.
Brierley was found with over 46,795 images in his possession which showed girls as young as 4 in sexualised poses in swimwear, underwear or other clothing intended to expose their bodies. Imagery included a two-hour video of six girls in swimwear, the camera focused on their breast or genital areas.
Yet it took painstaking, significant work by police to sort the imagery into that which was criminal and that which was not.
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