A former senior New South Wales Labor government adviser, Craig Munnings, has been secretly tried and convicted of 14 child sex offences after a suppression order mistakenly concealed his identity for more than seven years. Munnings, once dubbed corrupt mining minister Ian Macdonald's "right-hand man" and an adviser to several Labor ministers, remained on bail and continued working as a consultant and registered lobbyist throughout the prolonged legal process, which was repeatedly delayed by claimed illness and self-representation. The case raises serious questions about court administration errors and how a man facing serious child abuse allegations retained access to political circles for years.

Munnings, 61, was arrested in February 2019 and first appeared before a magistrate that March, when a suppression order intended only to protect his two victims' identities was wrongly entered into the Justicelink system as covering his own name, with a source suggesting someone had clicked "suppress all". He was found guilty at Gosford District Court on 7 August of nine counts of sexual assault, four of aggravated indecent assault and one of carnal knowledge, committed against two girls, one as young as ten, during the mid-1980s and early 1990s; the jury deliberated for under five hours. The order was only lifted after conviction, and the Department of Communities and Justice has confirmed it was made in error.