Retracing the steps of Mark Dennis, 'brilliant' barrister with a dark side

[u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-11/mark-dennis-from-top-barrister-to-accused-paedophile/107240162

[u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869]

Barrister Charles Waterstreet, who worked at Forbes alongside Dennis for more than a decade until facing his own sexual misconduct allegations, described his former colleague as "very ambitious" but "an oddball".

Thats the pot calling the kettle black.

[u/snakeIs → u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869]

Mr Waterstreet was long gone from Forbes Chambers when the news of Mr Dennis’ charges and subsequent suicide broke. He may well have worked with him for ten years but his own sexual misconduct allegations arose from a floor of serviced offices further down Elizabeth St where he’d worked from for a few years after leaving Forbes.

[u/cincinnatus_lq → u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869]

I know right!! Once you start putting the hard word on readers, you might as well start an industrial-scale child farm in Cambodia

[u/Able_Competition_339 → u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869]

Why of all people at the bar, would the ABC chose a colourful barrister to give an assessment of someone’s character ?

[u/snakeIs → u/Able_Competition_339]

The impression I got was that while numerous barristers have been prepared to discuss Mr Dennis anonymously , Mr Waterstreet consented to be named in the podcast.

[u/Inner_Agency_5680]

The article says other lawyers knew his reputation for sexual harassment for years. For context, the most the NSW OLSC itself has fined a lawyer for sexual harassment in the last 10 years is $0.

One silk, one solicitor. God knows how many other sexual misconduct complaints it closed without investigating or referring to the Bar Council or Law Society, because it doesn’t publish that.

[u/snakeIs → u/Inner_Agency_5680]

Do you know for a fact that any complaints were made about Mr Dennis?
OLSC does not deal with lawyers’ complaints against other lawyers.

[u/Inner_Agency_5680 → u/snakeIs]

No, and I’m not saying there were. My point is about the regulator, not him.

The OLSC does deal with them though. Every complaint about a NSW lawyer goes to the OLSC first, including complaints from other lawyers, and it decides whether to keep it or pass it to the Law Society or Bar Council.

The Fin Review reported in 2024 on a lawyer’s sexual assault complaint about a solicitor. All the OLSC had to do was refer it to the Law Society. Instead it closed it without investigating, refused to review that, and fought hard against referral through two Supreme Court cases.

It ended up paying her costs.

[u/snakeIs → u/Inner_Agency_5680]

OK.
Years ago I attended a CPD session where the previous Commissioner said what I quoted. But time marches on and the example you gave is much more recent.

[u/planck1313]

Are all silks top silks to the ABC?

[u/jeffsaidjess → u/planck1313]

Surely there’s plenty of silks who are bottoming

[u/snakeIs → u/planck1313]

That’s very common in the MSM. The terms leading, top, eminent and the like are bandied around willy nilly.
In one instance a few years ago when a Sydney lady lawyer took up with a public figure she instantly became a “high flying hotshot criminal lawyer”.
They can’t help themselves.

[u/kelmin27 → u/snakeIs]

Sensationalising sells…

[u/IIAOPSW → u/planck1313]

Tonight on Top Silk...

[u/Interesting_Ad_1888 → u/planck1313]

No rules around who can be referred to as top silk. I encourage all to include it in their email signature.

[u/Zhirrzh]

Feel the headline is a bit soft pedalling what he did tbh. 

[u/marcellouswp → u/Zhirrzh]

I think it's just framing the story as being about the duality. What do we know he did above the image trading and online fantasy chat? Presumably that's part of any investigation but tbh it doesn't look as if they have found much yet.

[u/Healthtech_Geek]

My heart goes out to the forensic investigators who had to sift through his devices. PTSD in the making.

Sounds like he would have had quite the network. Hopefully the AFP will pursue the remaining evidence to find more perps, given the press coverage and high profile of this case.

[u/snakeIs → u/Healthtech_Geek]

There’s been no mention of any other “perps” as at the end of Ep2 of the podcast.
When the news of the arrest broke, the MSM eagerly published that Mr Dennis arranged legal conferences in Cambodia which enabled fellow lawyers to claim sizeable tax deductions for attending. This was rubbish.
Mr Dennis arranged annual legal conferences in Sydney which had high calibre legal presenters and which were increasingly well attended. The conference fees were a little lower that the usual tariff for such events with the profits going to his registered charity Reasonable Cause Inc.
There’s been nothing to suggest that other Australian lawyers travelled to Cambodia.

[u/Healthtech_Geek → u/snakeIs]

I wasn't suggesting other lawyers were perps. Was referring to digital forensics identifying those connected via online distribution of CSAM.

[u/snakeIs → u/Healthtech_Geek]

We’ve heard about a pop-up on one of more of Mr Dennis’s devices which indicated complete erasure if the device is connected to the internet. Given what was at stake this is not unlikely. Any override would have been known to Mr Dennis.
One of the many aspects yet to be revealed is the contents of his devices - provided the investigators could get access.
It also occurs to me that if he’d had similar encryption on his iPhone we wouldn’t be discussing him at all.

[u/Healthtech_Geek → u/snakeIs]

Forensics know about these tactics and actively mitigate them.

Have heard tell of AFP cases involving perps who are highly paid programmers; AFP has ways to preserve evidence and analyse the devices

[u/snakeIs → u/Healthtech_Geek]

Well we’ll see then, won’t we?
No word yet.

[u/Katoniusrex163]

Imagine how fucked you have to be for Charlie Waterstreet to call you weird…

[u/kelmin27]

"It's one of those situations where, and I know I'm not the only person who's thought about this, I think a lot of us in retrospect are like, 'This was actually f***ing obvious,'" he said.

Oh good… no one thought to report him?

[u/snakeIs → u/kelmin27]

Report him for what? No one is going to report anyone on a hunch.
Put the arrest and its circumstances together with hunches and some may say it was (or should have been) obvious. In hindsight!!
His nameless colleagues have said positive things about him with some saying they “sensed a dark side”. And the only specific incident that’s been cited is the 2012 ALS Christmas Party drunken rant.
Hardly reportable.

[u/kelmin27 → u/snakeIs]

The article suggests people did report him on a hunch…

[u/pandasnfr → u/kelmin27]

A tradie did. Maybe not someone with an understanding of investigation and proof.

[u/kelmin27 → u/pandasnfr]

You don’t need to understand investigations and proof to report a legitimate concern. That’s for investigators and prosecutors to determine.

My question is why you appear to criticise the person who reported it rather than asking why those who apparently recognised the warning signs didn’t.

[u/snakeIs → u/kelmin27]

For all we know the report put Mr Dennis on a database which triggered an alarm when he, an unaccompanied middle-aged man, returned to Australia from a 3rd world country.
I don’t know either but it is a distinct possibility.

[u/snakeIs → u/pandasnfr]

The tradie probably wanted someone in the know to check him out or at least add him to their database.

Mirror on the bedroom ceiling! Wow.

[u/McTerra2 → u/snakeIs]

The Meriton serviced apartments in Kent st Sydney used to (maybe still do) have mirrors on the ceiling above the bed

[u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869 → u/kelmin27]

These stories always go one of two ways. Everybody knew, in hindsight of course, or no one suspected a thing until it made the news.

[u/c0d4ing]

There’s clearly more to this story and this article doesn’t cover it.

[u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869 → u/c0d4ing]

What aspect do you think is missing?

[u/snakeIs → u/Worldly_Tomorrow_869]

We’ll need to hear Ep3 before we can properly answer that. This article is a fair summary of Ep1 with a few aspects of Ep2 included and a little bit of extra info not yet broadcast.

[u/Suppository_ofwisdom]

The Dark Menace