Two Aboriginal community figures who built careers on the protection and wellbeing of young people are facing serious legal consequences – one convicted of assaulting vulnerable teenagers and the other hit with fresh child sex charges – in separate cases that have emerged within days of each other.
The cases involve Cody Haywood Schaeffer, a Queensland charity director and former Order of Australia Medal recipient, and Barry Wayne Lawrence, a Western Australian government employee and child protection award winner.
Charity founder spared jail after assaulting five teenagers
Schaeffer (32) pleaded guilty to six counts of common assault on Wednesday and was sentenced at Brisbane Magistrates Court to nine months’ jail, wholly suspended for 18 months.
The director of Borderline Australia – a non-profit that runs mental health camps for young people – was once the youngest ever recipient of an Order of Australia Medal, Brisbane’s Young Citizen of the Year in 2020 and a 2022 Young Australian of the Year nominee.
The court heard Schaeffer met his victims through his charity work and gained their trust before offering them money to allow him to tie them up and whip their feet with a clothes hanger between 2021 and 2023. The boys (aged between 14 and 17) agreed to the acts at first but Schaeffer continued after they told him to stop. Some had duct tape over their mouth and eyes.
Magistrate Zachary Sarra described the conduct as “disturbing” and questioned why Schaeffer had not been charged with deprivation of liberty.
“Moreover, when these children asked the defendant to stop, he did not stop.” Prosecutor Kacie Atkinson told the court.
Schaeffer’s lawyer Danielle Egan described the conduct as “immature and jovial” and argued for probation or a suspended sentence given her client’s young age, lack of relevant criminal history and mental health struggles.
Schaeffer apologised to the court. “I’ve been a horrible role model and immaturity is not an excuse for it.” he said.
Magistrate Sarra accepted that Schaeffer had shown genuine remorse and that the guilty plea and lack of relevant criminal history allowed for the sentence to be wholly suspended.
Schaeffer’s Order of Australia Medal may now be cancelled as the Governor-General holds authority to cancel an award if a recipient is convicted of a crime.
Child protection award winner faces new charges in WA
In Western Australia, Barry Wayne Lawrence, 39, who once won a child protection award, is now facing eight new charges of child sex offences – four counts of sexually penetrating a child over 13 and under 16, indecent dealings with a child, attempted sexual penetration and encouraging a child over 13 and under 16 to engage in sexual behaviour.
Police allege Lawrence, from the Mandurah suburb of Coodanup, sexually abused his victim in April 2012 while working with vulnerable children in his role at the WA Department of Communities. He is due to appear in court next week. Mr Lawrence has not entered pleas and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The new charges come on top of four offences laid last year. Mr Lawrence was granted bail in 2025 after being charged with indecently dealing with a child over 16 under their authority, indecently dealing with a child over 13 and under 16 and two counts of allegedly intending to expose a person under 16 to indecent matter.
The first charges were laid less than a year after Mr Lawrence was given a partnership award as an Aboriginal practice leader at Western Australia’s inaugural Child Protection Excellence Awards, presented by then-minister for child protection Sabina Winton.
Mr Lawrence was chair of Mandurah’s NAIDOC Committee, worked with Aboriginal young people and led art therapy sessions for children.
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