Solicitor to be struck off over child sexual abuse

Justice Paul Freeburn of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal recommended that Christopher Matthew Henaghan’s name be removed from the roll, three years after he was convicted of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child.

In April 2022, Henaghan was sentenced to an imprisonment term of five years, suspended after 20 months, for sexual abuse that occurred between March 2012 and March 2014.

The tribunal heard the child was nine when the offending began.

With assistance from practitioner panel member Susan Forrest and lay panel member Dr Julian Lamont, Justice Freeburn found removal of Henaghan’s name was an appropriate sanction.

“His conduct demonstrates that he is not a fit and proper person to remain on the roll at the time of this hearing,” Justice Freeburn said.

“And the probability is that he is permanently unfit to practice.”

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Henaghan accepted that the conduct amounted to professional misconduct and he should be struck from the roll.

After serving the term of imprisonment, Henaghan returned to New Zealand, where he was first admitted as a legal practitioner in 1981.

He was admitted in Australia in 1985 and held a practising certificate until February 2022, after which it was cancelled.

Last April, Henaghan lost an appeal in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against a decision to cancel his visa.

Member Angela Julian-Armitage said Henaghan breached the Australian community’s expectations by the nature of his criminal offending, “which by any standard is universally viewed as an abhorrent and particularly reprehensible breach of Australian laws”.

“Therefore, the Australian community, ‘as a norm’, expects the Australian government not to allow him to remain in Australia,” Julian-Armitage said in her reasons, published in May 2024.

The case is: Legal Services Commissioner v Henaghan [2025] QCAT 258

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