In January, prominent barrister Mark Dennis was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with possessing child abuse material. Weeks later, before entering a formal plea, he was found dead in his home.
An ABC investigation has uncovered Dennis's longstanding relationship with celebrated children's charity Sunrise Cambodia, where he was chairman from 2018 to 2020.
The revelations have prompted an examination of Sunrise's child protection history, raising questions about the culture of orphanages across the country.
Warning: This article contains references to child sexual abuse and suicide.
When Akara* was working at the Cambodian orphanage Sunrise, she noticed the charity's chairman, Australian barrister Mark Dennis SC, always liked spending time with "pretty girls" when he visited.
"He was always playing with the girls," she said. "He liked girls."
Her relationship with Dennis was professional, so she was surprised to receive a text message from him a few years after leaving Sunrise.
Mark Dennis: If I send a full video will you delete it after watching?
Akara didn't answer the question directly, but he persisted.
Mark Dennis: Ok I send and you can watch tonight — hope you enjoy 😂😂😂💦💦💦🍆🍆
Less than two hours later, he sent a link to a Dropbox file– the thumbnail showing an unmade bed. It was a video of him having sex with a Cambodian person.
Mark Dennis: Did you enjoy watching?
Mark Dennis: ?
Mark Dennis: You like it?
He called her. She did not answer. He kept asking.
Akara stayed positive but said she did not want any more videos.
Then, Dennis changed tack.
Mark Dennis: Do you know any Cambodian girl who speaks English and wants to find a husband?
How old? And be English speaking?
Mark Dennis: Young is good 😂
Mark Dennis: I prefer virgin of course 😂🥰
She said she could not help him, but he kept pushing.
Mark Dennis: Any time you can help me in any way let me know — happy to reward you 😂😂😇😇
She said no.
Mark Dennis: Ok you can come and watch me if you want 😂😂
I told you, no thank you
I wish I I can but I m too busy
Mark Dennis: Next time I find out your day off you can watch me have sex with a virgin — just for curiosity ok? 😂😂😂
No thanks
Haha
Dennis called. She did not answer.
Mark Dennis: I pay you $300 watch one hour 😂😂
No thanks
The chat ended with Akara sending a dog-barking emoji — one final effort to make him stop.
The ABC has reviewed the metadata to verify the text messages were sent from the same number Dennis used for his legal work.
Akara said she had no idea why Dennis sent the messages and did not report them to Sunrise or police.
"I feel horrible," she told the ABC. "I'm still thinking 'Why, why, why'. It's disgusting."
In January, Dennis was charged with possessing and transmitting child abuse material, but he was found dead in his home before facing trial.
The ABC has revealed Australian and Cambodian national police are still jointly investigating Dennis's network, including his links to Sunrise, in a cross-border investigation codenamed Operation Queenstown.
Dennis sponsored a handful of children at Sunrise over many years, regularly visited these and other children in the orphanage, and maintained close relationships with some children he met through Sunrise once they left as adults.
Former Sunrise employees have alleged inappropriate behaviour by Dennis, including sexual harassment of an employee, excessive touching of teenage girls and entering children's dormitories.
None of these allegations were reported to Sunrise. A spokesperson for Sunrise said police had informed the charity that no current or former Sunrise child had been identified as one of Dennis's victims.
"We take child protection extremely seriously. Sunrise operates under Cambodian, Australian and international child protection standards, is independently audited, and any concern raised by a child or graduate is followed up thoroughly."
Now, documents obtained by Background Briefing and ABC Investigations reveal that Sunrise was made aware of allegations of misconduct, including against two former Sunrise employees and one current employee.
The claims include one historical allegation of rape by a former employee against a Sunrise girl, after being given a "final warning" for sexual misconduct years earlier.
Sunrise declined to comment on what action was taken in response to this for privacy reasons but added that some allegations that had been made to the ABC did not align with its records.
The revelations have prompted former Sunrise staff to come forward with historical concerns about the celebrated charity's policies and culture, and wider reflection across the industry about how all charities balance fundraising with child safety.
Maggie Eno, a co-founder of Cambodian children's charity M'Lop Tapang, speaking generally, said the ABC's investigation raised awareness across all charities about unsafe practices, which "goes on a lot sadly", and questioned the future of orphanages in Cambodia.
"We're not post-Khmer Rouge anymore, where there really genuinely was so many orphans. The need is not there. The need is for family-based care, community-based care," she said.
Social worker Rob Madsen, who worked as Sunrise's operations manager from 2008-2012, said there needed to be an independent investigation run by Cambodian experts into Dennis's role at Sunrise.
"There's been a significant intrusion by an alleged offender," he said. "There needs to be an arms-length investigation. If there are potential victims, those victims must be identified and provided support."
A 'revolving door' of visitors
Madsen was excited to join Sunrise Cambodia in 2008, a high-profile Australian charity celebrated for helping disadvantaged children.
He had spent the previous 15 years working with government agencies and non-government organisations in child protection, and his skills were embraced by the charity's founder Geraldine Cox.
"You have strengths to bring to Sunrise that have never been offered before, and I know the children will benefit from what you have to give," Cox wrote to Madsen.
However, upon starting as operations manager, Madsen was quickly disturbed by some of what he saw.
He said a busload of tourists came to see the children, who performed dance shows, in what he described as a "revolving door" of visitors and sponsors who felt entitled to take children outside the orphanage.
"I was shocked," Madsen said. "Australians have come to Cambodia for the sole purpose of harming children, sexually abusing a child."
Madsen introduced new rules for visitors, staff and sponsors — designed to limit and supervise adult interactions with children, and record and investigate any allegations of wrongdoing.
Sunrise said it used standard guidelines provided by the Cambodian government prior to Madsen's arrival but acknowledged "more extensive" policies were developed at that time.
Madsen's framework was tested in December 2008, when an Australian sponsor emailed Cox about an interaction with a young girl who told her a Sunrise employee was a "bad man" because of something that happened in the bedroom.
"I am very concerned that he may be a paedophile or at least acting improperly … I will leave the matter in your capable hands," the sponsor wrote.
"As a primary teacher with 20 years' experience, I feel I know when children are telling the truth."
The following day, Cox responded that she was having "this looked into privately".
"But find it difficult to believe that [staff member] is guilty of anything along the lines of your message. He is a dedicated father [Sunrise term for employee] of 43 girls and has been with us for over 10 years."
In response, Madsen initially wrote to Cox saying that he thought the sponsor was "clearly overstepping her perceived role as sponsor".
He suggested the staff member not be left alone with children "so as he is not placed in a position of further accusation".
Then, Madsen said he did eventually put the staff member on watch, and when the same person was accused of sending pornographic material to a young teacher the following year, he was sacked.
Asked about this account in a series of questions, Sunrise did not respond.
Bus driver accused of rape
Not long after, Sunrise faced a bigger crisis when a 16-year-old girl alleged she had been raped by the charity's long-term bus driver.
According to reports compiled two months after the alleged incident, the bus driver dropped the children at school but asked one girl to stay behind, then drove to a quiet plot of land, and allegedly raped her.
The girl fell pregnant and underwent an abortion. She reported what happened to Sunrise and the police. The bus driver was terminated by Sunrise but disappeared to evade police arrest, according to the documents.
This same bus driver had a history of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct towards children at Sunrise, detailed in the documents.
An incident report, written by Madsen, said the bus driver was given a "final warning" in 2004 for "abnormal sexualised behaviour" towards children, including "flirting and watching girls undress in the toilet".
"I cannot hide my feeling of anger and frustration over this, and the fact that such behaviour was not taken more seriously at the time."
Madsen wrote the staff member should have been "instantly dismissed", and he was worried the "mild action … may very well come back to bite".
He also warned Sunrise was at risk of "being exposed in the media" and said there had been "clearly a number of serious gaps" with previous management of this staff member.
"I am confident though, that we are now doing all we can to ensure the best possible protection of our children."
Sunrise said historical allegations the ABC asked it to comment on did not reflect the "substantial safeguarding measures, oversight mechanisms, and continuous improvements that Sunrise has implemented to protect children and promote their wellbeing".
Boy 'rewarded' despite abuse
Sunrise reported another case — of sexual assault by a child — to authorities, but a subsequent decision raised questions about its attitude towards offenders.
For decades, Sunrise sent Cambodian students on exchanges to private schools in Australia.
The opportunities were highly sought-after among the children, and only a handful of students were selected through a competitive process.
In 2010, a teenager was chosen to study at a prestigious boys' college in Australia despite the boy admitting to "penetrative, forced sex with a female child" in Cambodia two years earlier.
"The police were informed of the abuse," Madsen wrote to the board. "A brief record kept in the file at [Sunrise]."
However, Madsen said the boy did not undergo a psychological assessment before being selected and warned that choosing the boy sent the wrong signal to other children.
"We, by our actions, also give other children a clear message that in life, we can indeed do wrong — break rules of life and law, and in fact be rewarded without consequence."
Sunrise did not respond to specific questions about Madsen's email or the case.
Employee accused of lacking professional boundaries
Sunrise staff members have not just raised historical concerns.
The ABC has obtained a resignation letter written by a senior employee in 2020 raising concerns about another Sunrise employee, who remains employed by Sunrise at the time of publication.
In the letter, the resigning employee told Cox and other managers that this employee should not stay in his current position because "his behaviour is against child protection policy".
"He takes children to his house and he sleep in the same bed," the senior employee wrote. "And he likes to bring the children that he likes outside."
The allegation was that this man had unprofessional boundaries with children.
The ABC has spoken with two additional sources who also made claims against the same employee but did not report these to management.
Sunrise said an investigation into the 2020 letter found the bed-shari
