Patrick Power (Australian)

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For other persons named Patrick Power, see Patrick Power (disambiguation).

Dr Patrick John Power SC (* ca. 1953) is a disgraced Senior Counsel in New South Wales, Australia. He was Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor at the NSW Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP). In May 2007 he was convicted of possessing child pornography. According to Who's Who Power's education began at the upmarket, private Barker College in Hornsby, run by the Anglican Church. He obtained his law degree at the Australian National University, his Masters degree at the University of Sydney and accomplished an MBA at the University of New South Wales. He returned to Sydney Uni to work on his PhD. He completed his PhD thesis at the ANU on comparative restorative justice practice. Power was admitted as a barrister and worked for 16 years as a prosecutor in serious criminal cases (including sex cases). He was also the chairperson of the New South Wales Youth Justice Advisory Committee. He was instrumental in promoting and helping draft the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW) which instituted restorative justice conferencing for young offenders. He was a consultant to the New South Wales Government on the implementation of restorative justice processes for adults. [1]

Possession of child pornography

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On 4 July 2006 Patrick Power returned from a vacation in Thailand and reported to the IT department of his office technical problems with the laptop computer provided to him for the discharge of his professional duties. The technician soon brought to the attention of his superiors that a file with a title that explicitly and profanely described a 10-year-old boy in a sexual act with his father in a sub-directory (folder) named "good" caught his attention, and that the "good" folder contained 31 video files of a sexual nature. He was arrested on 6 July 2006 and charged with possession of child pornography. He was excused from appearing at his court mention. He was then also suspended from his duties, but remained on full pay until his formal resignation in January 2007. His annual base remuneration amounted to $ 221,000. [2] Power pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography during his court appearance at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court. Victorian chief Crown prosecutor Jeremy Rapke, called from interstate to provide for juridical independence, said Power had collected in excess of 29,000 pornographic images, in the main strongly concerned with homosexual themes, including 433 pictures and 31 videos depicting children as young as five. He said, they were of "the worst and highest grade pornography" involving "humiliation and sadistic bestiality".^[1] Fifty-nine members of the legal profession saw fit to provide references of their former colleague's good character to the court. This includes a statement by the state's most senior Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi QC, a colleague of Power's of 26 years. On May 9, 2007, he was sentenced to 15 months in jail, to serve a minimum of eight months^[2], but was released on bail when his lawyers lodged an appeal against sentence^[3]. The appeal hearing is scheduled for 14 June 2007.He lost his appeal against a jail sentence, was imprisoned for six months, and is due for release on 18 January, 2008. A case against the Daily Telegraph was withdrawn by the Law Society on 20 November 2007, because an apology had been printed by that newspaper. Patrick Power's practising certificate has been suspended by the NSW Bar Association. The Bar Association is unsure if he will ever be able to practice law in New South Wales again.^[4]

Notes

External links

• News Ltd
• [3]