Prosecutor’s office in turmoil amid criminal charges against lawyer

The NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions spent almost $300,000 on external media advisers in two years after seeking a crisis communications plan, documents produced to parliament reveal.

The revelation comes as the ODPP faces a separate controversy over criminal charges laid against one of its lawyers, Vanessa O’Bryan, who is accused of intimate sexualised relationships with prison inmates. She was suspended without pay last year.

The 32-year-old Western Sydney University alumnus was a criminal defence lawyer before she was employed by the ODPP. She worked in its Lismore office.

Office in turmoil

The O’Bryan proceedings are the latest saga engulfing the prosecutorial agency.

Documents produced by the ODPP to state parliament reveal the office engaged communications advisory firm GRACosway in 2024 after it came under fire from a group of District Court judges over its handling of sexual assault prosecutions.

The judges’ decisions in sexual assault cases resulted in a wave of negative publicity in The Australian about an alleged “#MeToo overkill”. Then One Nation upper house MP Tania Mihailuk, now an independent, pushed unsuccessfully for a parliamentary inquiry into the prosecutions in 2024.

In response to questions on notice following a budget estimates hearing in March this year, the ODPP said: “The total fees invoiced to the ODPP by GRACosway from 4 April 2024 to 31 March [2026] are $289,875.

“GRACosway currently provides ad hoc support to the ODPP under this agreement.”

The public affairs and strategic communications advisory firm has acted for corporate, not-for-profit and government clients. It provided media relations support to Kathleen Folbigg, whose convictions over the deaths of her four young children were quashed after a history inquiry.

Two of the judges who criticised the office – Robert Newlinds and Peter Whitford – met with disapproval from the Judicial Commission after Director of Public Prosecutions, Sally Dowling, SC, lodged complaints against them over their remarks.

The initial engagement letter from GRACosway, dated April 4, 2024, said the ODPP was seeking “crisis communications advice and counsel”.

GRACosway said in the engagement letter that it understood “the public and editorial scrutiny” the ODPP and Dowling “have been under and the assistance you may require”.

It said the crisis communications plan would enable an “effective response to any issue/situation that poses either an operational or reputational risk to the ODPP”. It did not identify specific issues.

“Given the limited workforce capacity in the communications team, the ODPP also requires ongoing assistance in the event of a crisis or major disruptive event,” the letter said.

A draft “Communication and Engagement Plan” by GRACosway, dated July 2024, was produced to parliament. It presented a relatively anodyne media engagement plan rather than a crisis communications blueprint.

Meeting with Dowling

GRACosway sent a letter directly to Dowling on August 7, 2024, thanking her for “the opportunity to meet with you recently to discuss ... requirements for strategic communications, media relations, and issues management support”.

A new media manager had started at the ODPP on July 22. The firm said it would be assisting them “during the early months in the role”.

Dowling said in budget estimates on March 11 this year that GRACosway was engaged “for the purpose of addressing capability deficits within my organisation in relation to the media team”.

“They were dialled up and dialled down according to need over that period—according to the volume of media requests and the nature of media requests.”

In its answer to questions on notice, Dowling’s office said there had been 14 meetings including representatives of GRACosway and Dowling between April 4, 2024, and March 31, 2026.

“This does not include informal conversations by phone with GRACosway,” the ODPP said.

It said the last scheduled meeting with GRACosway attended by Dowling was on November 28 last year.

The 2GB story

At the apex of the controversies engulfing the ODPP is the extraordinary fallout between Dowling and District Court Judge Penelope Wass.

Dowling admitted to a parliamentary inquiry in December last year that her office was responsible for giving information forming the basis of a negative story about Wass to a Sydney radio station in October 2024. However, she said she did not become aware of this until recently.

Wass had invited an Indigenous teen to present what she called a “Welcome to Country” before being sentenced for an aggravated break and enter involving the sexual touching of an elderly woman. He delivered a short acknowledgement of “the traditional owners and custodians of this land” via video link, rather than a welcome.

Ben Fordham, host of 2GB’s breakfast program, described the “welcome” on air on October 25, 2024, as a “local scandal”.

Wass was one of the judges who had criticised the ODPP about its handling of sexual assault prosecutions.

The parliamentary inquiry examining the saga was set up to assess identity protections for children in criminal proceedings in NSW, but has focused almost exclusively on the genesis of the story about Wass.

In a statement to the inquiry on December 17, the ODPP said it was difficult to avoid the inference that the committee intended to “ambush” Dowling with a lengthy submission written by Wass.

The inquiry is expected to deliver findings by May 8. Dowling has said she will not resign if findings are made against her.

The O’Bryan proceedings

The criminal proceedings against Vanessa O’Bryan have attracted another wave of unwanted publicity for the ODPP.

Police allege O’Bryan unlawfully accessed confidential information from the ODPP and received $5000 in proceeds of crime.

She was charged in October with three counts of misconduct in public office, two counts of accessing restricted data, and hindering the discovery of evidence.

Charges of knowingly deriving a material benefit from a criminal group and knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime with the intent to conceal were added in November.

Strict bail conditions imposed last month require O’Bryan to live at a property in the north-west Sydney suburb of Windsor.

She is banned from using encrypted apps including “WhatsApp, Snapchat, Wickr, Viber, KIK Messenger, Zoom, Discord, WeChat, Telegram or Signal”.

O’Bryan is accused of having relationships with gangland murderer Joshua Baines and inmate Terry Sampson, as well as alleged “sexual relationship with other inmates” and a “prolonged association with a number of criminals”, according to a Local Court order.

The ODPP said in a statement last year that it reported O’Bryan’s conduct to NSW Police in September “after detecting suspicious activity”.

It said this year that an internal investigation would be conducted when the criminal investigation had concluded.

Reality TV and Suits

O’Bryan’s social media activity while she was a law student provides a snapshot of her interests at the time, including online influencers, reality TV, law school memes and Suits, the US legal drama that catapulted Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, into the limelight.

In April 2014, O’Bryan posted on Twitter, now X: “1 week until Sydney auditions for [Big Brother Australia] getting excited!!!”

The same year, she engaged with the official Suits Twitter account, reposting replies it sent her.

She also attempted to engage directly with celebrities and influencers, including Kendall and Kylie Jenner.

In January 2018, O’Bryan travelled to Argentina as part of the international human rights law program at the University of Lanus. “This was a once in a lifetime experience,” she said in an online post.

Suppression order lifted

Supreme Court Justice Sarah McNaughton lifted a non-publication order on O’Bryan’s name on April 10. She said Local Court Judge Kathy Crittenden had made the order in December on the basis it was necessary to protect O’Bryan’s psychological safety.

McNaughton said O’Bryan’s attitude to the suppression had “recently undergone a complete U-turn” and there was “no longer before the court any relevant evidence showing any necessity” for the order.

This was “sufficient to dispose of this matter”, McNaughton said. However, she noted the court must take into account that “a primary objective of the administration of justice is to safeguard the public interest in open justice” when considering whether to make a suppression order.

“I note that public interest can be contrasted to ‘interest by the public’ in a more tabloid or salacious sense,” she said.

The judge said there was a “high public interest in open justice where a solicitor has been charged with serious criminal offences”.

Burned out, mentally exhausted

The premier’s department conducts an annual NSW People Matter Employee Survey for public sector employees, including staff at independent agencies.

Last year’s survey results for the ODPP, covering the period August 18 to September 12, 2025, revealed 43 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed they felt “burned out” and “mentally exhausted” by their work. The survey yielded 755 responses, a 69 per cent response rate.

However, the previous year’s survey results, covering roughly the same period, recorded higher levels of burnout (47 per cent) and mental exhaustion (45 per cent).

High job satisfaction

There were a number of positive results: 76 per cent of respondents reported being satisfied with their job, up from 69 per cent in 2024, and 84 per cent said their job gave them “a feeling of personal accomplishment”.

Almost all respondents (92 per cent) said their manager supported flexible working in their team. More than half (57 per cent) said their overall wellbeing was positive, up from 53 per cent in 2024.

Forty-nine per cent said the amount of stress in their job was manageable, compared with 44 per cent in the previous year.

Dowling said in budget estimates in March that the survey results had “improved distinctly over the last three years” and she looked forward to “continuing that upward trajectory”.

She pointed to the ODPP’s employee assistance programs, vicarious trauma training, formal mentoring program, workload weighting tool and psychosocial risk register, among a range of other initiatives.

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