Christopher Bruce Craigie , also known as Chris Craigie, is a Judge of the

District Court of New South Wales The District Court of New South Wales is the intermediate court in the judicial hierarchy of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a trial court and has an appellate jurisdiction. In addition, the Judges of the Court preside over a rang ...

and former

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

who served in that role between 2007 and 2012.

Biography

Craigie originally studied history, before studying law and becoming one of the first students to graduate in law from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1976 and a barrister in 1980. He was appointed as a

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

in 1994. In 2001 Craigie was appointed

Senior Counsel The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...

and from 2002–2007 was Deputy Senior Public Defender for NSW. On 13 October 2007 Craigie was appointed by then-

Attorney-General of Australia The Attorney-GeneralThe title is officially "Attorney-General". For the purposes of distinguishing the office from other attorneys-general, and in accordance with usual practice in the United Kingdom and other common law jurisdictions, the Aust ...

Phillip Ruddock Philip Maxwell Ruddock (born 12 March 1943 in Canberra) is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire. Ruddock is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and currently the state president of the party's New South W ...

as the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for a seven-year term. Ruddock praised Craigie's extensive career in criminal law and expertise required to supervise Commonwealth criminal prosecutions. Craigie's time as Commownealth Director of Public Prosecutions, between 13 October 2007 and 12 October 2012, included the prosecution of complex criminal matters relating to terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking and people smuggling, and included

proceeds of crime Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

litigation against

David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, and met with Osama bin Laden during 2001. He was then detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp ...

and a determination that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Labor MP Craig Thomson after a three-year investigation by

Fair Work Australia The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian industrial relations tribunal created by the ''Fair Work Act 2009'' as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Australia ...

. At the conclusion of his term as Director of Public Prosecutions, Craigie was appointed to the

and was sworn in on 15 October 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craigie, Chris Australian Senior Counsel Australian prosecutors Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of New South Wales alumni Directors of Public Prosecutions of Australia Judges of the District Court of NSW