{"id":536240,"date":"2026-03-12T20:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536240\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T20:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:19:18","slug":"former-department-of-communities-employee-barry-wayne-lawrence-facing-child-sex-abuse-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536240\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Department of Communities employee Barry Wayne Lawrence facing child sex abuse charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A West Australian man honoured with a prestigious award for excellence in child protection has been charged with raping a teenage boy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Barry Wayne Lawrence, 39, is accused of sexually abusing the boy in April 2012 while he was working for the Department of Communities \u2014 the government agency tasked with looking after vulnerable children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Detectives have charged Mr Lawrence with eight offences, including four counts of sexually penetrating a child between the age of 13 and 16.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Barry Lawrence in a suit jacket participating in an interview.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/185af7fb9248417e70339655f23a05ae.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Barry Wayne Lawrence allegedly raped a boy while he was employed by the Department of Communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Lawrence, who lives in the Mandurah suburb of Coodanup, was in his mid-twenties at the time of the alleged offences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He is set to appear in court next week to face the charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Awarded for excellence<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">In September 2024, WA&#8217;s then-minister for child protection Sabine Winton honoured Mr Lawrence at the state&#8217;s inaugural Child Protection Excellence Awards.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A man pictured posing for a photo at an awards ceremony\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/174d75236f217ac6d5c73787ade1aacf.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Mr Lawrence pictured at an awards ceremony in September 2024 when he was recognised for his child protection work. (Supplied: WA Government)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He was given a partnership award as an Aboriginal practice leader in Bindjareb Boodja (Mandurah).<\/p>\n<p>Support services:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Lawrence was also chair of the City of Mandurah&#8217;s NAIDOC Committee and ran football programs for local Indigenous youth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">His LinkedIn account states he had worked as a youth and family support worker since 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The ABC has also found recent references by a local health service promoting a camp and youth drop in program involving Mr Lawrence in the Mandurah and Peel district.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Barry Lawrence and Tony Buti pose for a photo in front of some Aboriginal art.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cdd84fa4c4bce0011345c0deb782baf7.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Mr Lawrence (left) pictured with the then-Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti. (Supplied)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A West Australian man honoured with a prestigious award for excellence in child protection has been charged with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,265987,4109,156547,44,14666,86,14665,45],"class_list":["post-536240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barry-wayne-lawrence","tag-child-sex-abuse","tag-department-of-communities","tag-news","tag-perth-courts","tag-perth-news","tag-wa-courts","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}