November 20, 2025 — 5.00am
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When youth group leader Matthew Briggs took his own life, the death of the dedicated church member rocked the tight-knit community.
Briggs had arrived in a small country town from Sydney, and over eight years became instrumental in running youth groups for a church, coaching girls’ sports, working as an usher at a cinema and hosting sleepovers for children from the church.
Now a member of the flock has turned whistleblower, alleging Briggs was under investigation as a paedophile, that the church covered it up and that government agency the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG) failed in its duty to protect children.
The explosive allegations, which have divided families and congregations at a church that cannot be named for legal reasons, will be aired for the first time under parliamentary privilege by NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson on Thursday.
“The police investigation of Matthew Briggs for child sexual abuse ended before it could begin because he took his own life, but the harm to victim-survivors, their loved ones and the community did not end,” she told the Herald.
Higginson warned families may have been “unaware that their children were left unsupervised” with a person who was alleged to have committed “abhorrent offences against children”...
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