GARY ROBERT WOODMAN

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Gary Robert Woodman, a solicitor of 33 years, was convicted in 2015 on two counts of grooming a child under 16 and one count of using the internet to procure a child under 16 (the 'child' being an undercover police officer). The QCAT found this constituted professional misconduct, holding he was not presently a fit and proper person to engage in legal practice, but not permanently unfit, so his name was not struck from the roll. He was disqualified from being granted a practising certificate for four years and ordered to pay the Commissioner's costs on the Supreme Court scale. An earlier related decision ([2017] QCAT 149) refused his application for a non-publication order.

Duties found breached:

• Personal probity and fitness to practise

Aggravating factors:

• Serious and distasteful criminal offences involving a child
• Conduct that appals professional peers and the public
• Commissioner submitted lack of insight/remorse in disciplinary proceedings

Mitigating factors:

• 33 years of practice with untarnished record
• Early plea of guilty and cooperation with proceedings
• Genuine remorse and shame (suicide attempt, letters of apology, psychiatric treatment)
• Low risk of reoffending per medical evidence
• No serious attempt to meet the child
• Significant personal and health problems (stroke, heart surgery, divorce)
• Already two years out of practice