The former Dean of Newcastle (Australia), Graeme Lawrence, was released from prison today after serving four and half years imprisonment for child sexual abuse. On 16 October 2019 Newcastle District Court Judge Tim Gartelmann sentenced Lawrence to a maximum of eight years in prison, with a non-parole period of four and a half years.
On 16 October 2019 Newcastle District Court Judge Tim Gartelmann said Graeme Lawrence had shown no remorse for his crimes and ordered he be jailed for four and a half years before he would be eligible for parole.
Lawrence had been brought up on charges before the Newcastle Professional Standards Board for sexual abuse and misconduct and on 15 Dec 2010 the board found that he had engaged in sexual relations with a 17 year old man at a church camp in 1984.
Lawrence, who served as Dean of Newcastle for 25 years until his retirement in 2008, was a member of the Anglican Church of Australia General Synod Standing Committee task force that in 2003 created the recommendations for the current professional standards proceedings.
Lawrence was arrested in 2017 following a referral from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for allegedly indecently and sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy in 1991.
He was charged in 2017 with aggravated indecent assault on a victim under the age of 16 and aggravated sexual assault and convicted after trial. The conditions of his release are that he not be in the company of a person under the age of 16 without an accompanying adult, 24-hour electronic monitoring and a ban from entering premises owned by the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.
