Church leader took his life after explosive child abuse claims: whistleblower

3 months ago 5

When youth group leader Matthew Briggs took his own life, the death of the dedicated church member rocked the tight-knit community.

Briggs had arrived in a small country town from Sydney, and over eight years became instrumental in running youth groups for a church, coaching girls’ sports, working as an usher at a cinema and hosting sleepovers for children from the church.

Matthew Briggs, a youth group leader at a NSW church, took his own life while under investigation for child sexual abuse, NSW Parliament will hear this week.

Now a member of the flock has turned whistleblower, alleging Briggs was under investigation as a paedophile, that the church covered it up and that government agency the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG) failed in its duty to protect children.

The explosive allegations, which have divided families and congregations at a church that cannot be named for legal reasons, will be aired for the first time under parliamentary privilege by NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson on Thursday.

“The police investigation of Matthew Briggs for child sexual abuse ended before it could begin because he took his own life, but the harm to victim-survivors, their loved ones and the community did not end,” she told the Herald.

Higginson warned families may have been “unaware that their children were left unsupervised” with a person who was alleged to have committed “abhorrent offences against children”.

‘I just felt sick. The first time you hear it, you don’t believe it.’

Phil Bear, a member of the church

Briggs died by suicide in February 2022.

Congregant Phil Bear said he learnt months later from the church pastor that Briggs had taken his own life just as NSW Police received a report he had sexually abused a child. Briggs’ death meant no criminal investigation could take place.

“I just felt sick. The first time you hear it, you don’t believe it,” Bear told the Herald. “I was stunned for months.”

Bear urged the church to warn families about the allegations against Briggs. Instead, he said a silence fell over the church, with only a handful of the 500 members told.

“I couldn’t look people in the eye any more,” he said.

Frustrated by a lack of action, he wrote an open letter to the church and posted it to 200 families to notify them of claims against Briggs.

“I have asked you repeatedly to advise the congregation that we had a child rapist, with multiple victims, whose offending spanned a number of years and all while he was active in our fellowship as a youth group leader,” reads the allegations in his letter from January 2024, seen by the Herald.

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson will air the allegations under parliamentary privilege on Thursday.

“He was in a trusted position, had access to children and opportunity to groom and abuse them … The possibility of his offending being widespread is very real … it looks to me you are more interested in protecting the assets and reputation of [the church] rather than the innocent.”

Bear left the church after posting the letter. A short time later, one church elder reached out to him to claim the church had hushed up a second alleged abuse.

A 14-year-old girl was allegedly sexually abused by an older teenager in a youth group and the church had kept it quiet, the elder told Bear.

“I knew something else would come out because they’d covered up Briggs so well,” Bear claimed.

In late 2024, that elder filed a complaint with NSW Police, but documents seen by the Herald suggest the girl’s family did not choose to pursue an investigation.

Bear also hired lawyer PJ O’Brien, and the pair escalated their concerns to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), which oversaw his church, and to the Office of the Children’s Guardian. They also approached anti-paedophile crusader Bob Cotton OAM, who then raised it with Higginson.

Bear and O’Brien’s complaint to the OCG went unanswered for months before it was dismissed. O’Brien said the investigator told him the complaint wasn’t within the office’s remit.

Higginson said the office’s dismissal was shocking: “This is the independent office that was established explicitly to protect children.

“It’s only because of the dedicated work of three people that any response was received, and then, they were told that nothing could be done,” she told the Herald.

‘These paedophiles are not our flock, they’re not our sheep - they are wolves.’

Bob Cotton, anti-pedophile campaigner

The OCG has been contacted for comment.

Cotton spoke out against clergy abusers at the royal commission into institutionalised child abuse and advocated for stronger laws and penalties for those who conceal child abuse.

He said he wasn’t surprised by Bear’s claims, saying “the mice are still in charge of the cheese”, and called on the OCG to explain why it failed to pursue the allegations.

“These paedophiles are not our flock, they’re not our sheep – they are wolves,” Cotton said.