John Avery Headshot

John William Avery (born 11 July 1948) is an Australian former barrister based in Hobart, Tasmania. Avery notably represented the perpetrator of the Port Arthur Massacre, Martin Bryant during pre-trial and sentencing proceedings before the Supreme Court of Tasmania in 1996,[1] before himself being sentenced in the same court for misappropriation and stealing from clients of his firm in 2008.[2] Avery was born in St Helens, Tasmania.[3] He was educated at Launceston Church Grammar School from 1961 to 1966 and the University of Tasmania, where he graduated Bachelor of Laws in 1971 and Master of Business in 2013.[4] He was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania on 1 February 1972.[5] He worked initially as an employee of a private law firm. He then established his own practice, John W Avery Barristers and Solicitors, later Avery Keal and Avery Partners, practising in criminal law and civil litigation.[6] In 1996 Avery represented Martin Bryant for the shooting murders of 35 people at Port Arthur on 28–29 April 1996. He is widely regarded as the person responsible for persuading Bryant to plead guilty to each of the charges of murder that had been alleged against him, saying that he brought Bryant to the decision to plead guilty by encouraging him to draw pictures of his actions on 28–29 April 1996 in order to avoid "a show trial, a circus, a pantomime".[7][1] On 3 September 2008 Avery was arraigned in the Supreme Court of Tasmania before Chief Justice Ewan Crawford on an indictment alleging one count of misappropriation as a company officer and 133 counts of stealing. Sentencing Avery, Chief Justice Crawford said: He carried out far more dishonest transactions than the number of charges might indicate. For example, count 1 has 46 particulars, and in fact involves about 49 cheques he fraudulently drew on his legal firm's bank account on various dates between January 2003 and March 2006. The 129 counts of stealing involve approximately 235 thefts of money between May 2000 and April 2006. They came to an end when his wrongdoing was detected by a financial manager at his legal firm in conjunction with his partner.