Former ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay was granted bail after he was handed a charge of grooming. Photo: Albert McKnight.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged child abuse.
An anonymous tip-off to police resulted in the former top law officer for the ACT, ex-church minister Gordon Ramsay, being arrested and accused of grooming a teenage boy.
Mr Ramsay was elected as the Member for Ginninderra for Labor in 2016 and spent the next four years as the ACT’s Attorney-General, as well as serving as Arts Minister.
Before that, he spent 19 years as a minister with Kippax Uniting Church and UnitingCare Kippax. He became the CEO of the ACT’s Cultural Facilities Corporation in 2021. This corporation manages the Canberra Theatre Centre, as well as the Canberra Museum and Gallery.
It is alleged he was in contact with the teenage boy between 2022 and 2024, during which he encouraged him to commit an act of a sexual nature.
The boy spoke to police in September 2025, and an investigation began into the allegations.
On Wednesday (8 October), Mr Ramsay was arrested and charged with a single count of grooming a young person.
Police also searched the 61-year-old’s home and vehicle, seizing electronic devices for digital examination.
Mr Ramsay faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday (9 October) where his lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith of Kamy Saeedi Law, said he would enter a plea of not guilty to his charge and applied for bail.
Prosecutor Morgan Howe opposed bail, saying the allegations were protracted and that numerous steps had been taken to avoid detection by others.
The court heard it alleged that data had been deleted from an iCloud account that was shared between Mr Ramsay and the teenager after Mr Ramsay said the matter was going to be reported to police so they needed to delete photos that were on it.
Police were trying to recover the data on the account.
“The primary concern is the potential that there are other victims, there are other people the police wish to speak to,” a detective sergeant with ACT Policing told the court.
He said police were concerned that if Mr Ramsay was granted bail, he could speak to these people, which could jeopardise their investigation.
Gordon Ramsay (right) was represented by his lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith. Photo: Albert McKnight.
The court heard an anonymous report made to police in April this year resulted in Mr Ramsay coming to their attention.
The report suggested an offence may have been committed against the teenage boy as well as another young person.
When Mr Kukulies-Smith asked why the police hadn’t spoken to this second person, the detective sergeant said the general approach of his team was that they wanted complainants to come forward of their own volition, rather than the police knocking on their door.
The defence lawyer said that, as police didn’t know if there were any more complainants, it was only speculation that there could be other potential victims.
Under Mr Kukulies-Smith’s questioning, the detective sergeant accepted that Mr Ramsay had no criminal history, cooperated with the police, had strong ties to the community, was not a flight risk, and there was no reason to suspect he would actively contravene a bail condition.
Magistrate Alexandra Burt said it seemed the bulk of the evidence for the matter had been prepared, and there appeared to be a limited chance for him to affect the evidence in the case.
She said the allegations were concerning and appeared “to reveal an abuse of trust that a young person placed in Mr Ramsay”.
However, the magistrate also believed there was a low likelihood that he would interfere with evidence in the case and agreed to grant bail on strict conditions.
These include not communicating with a person under 25, not being alone with a person under 25, having only one phone and not using encrypted apps, and remaining in the ACT and surrendering his passport.
The matter was adjourned to 15 December.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
Well Axon sorry to mention science again but CO2 is a building block of life, hardly a "pollutant".… View