EXCLUSIVE
A town’s Citizen of the Year has been handcuffed and frog marched away from his sprawling country home after being charged with more than 70 sex offences including rape.
Lawrence ‘Laurie’ Norris, 63, was arrested at his Forbes home, in Central West NSW, at about 8.45am on Wednesday following an 18-month police investigation into historical child sex offences in the region.
Police will allege the local icon, who is an equestrian and former president of the Forbes Pony Club, sexually assaulted four girls between 1974 and 2023, including three who were under the age of 16.
His charges include sexual intercourse without consent, sexually touch another person without consent, have sexual intercourse with person aged 14 years or over and under 16 years, attempt rape, act of indecency with girl under 16 years, aggravated indecent assault, aggravated sexual assault, and commit act of indecency.
Norris was named as Forbes’ Citizen of The Year at an award ceremony on Australia Day in 2022 for his ‘dedication to ensuring generations of residents enjoy and achieve in horse riding and sports’.
Lawrence ‘Laurie’ Norris is pictured (centre) with Forbes’ mayor after receiving his 2022 Citizen of the Year award
He hails from a farming family who are very well-known within the Eugowra community, where his father Wilf Norris was a popular farmer known for his use of horses to draught fields and his mother Pat was a horse rider and polocrosse player.
Wilf received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for his work with draught horses and service to heritage preservation, having helped to set up the Australian Draught Horse Stud Book Society and Golden Plough competition.
Norris carried on his family’s love for horses by mentoring young riders and offering horse cart rides at local events. He is also a member of the committee for the local Riding for Disabled Association, a charity that offers therapeutic horse-related activities.
According to media reports at the time, Norris was described as a ‘tireless worker’ and ‘popular within the community’ who voluntarily gave his time to mentor and coach young riders.
Accepting his award, Norris said he loved working with the Pony Club as teaching kids how to ride helped ‘keep them safe’.
‘Horses are great levellers,’ he told the Forbes Advocate in 2022.
Norris is known as a local dignitary for his work within the community
He is pictured being arrested by detectives on his farm on Wednesday
‘Pony Club is helping kids become better horse people, keeping them safe …
‘What it teaches kids is how to be competitive, how to act, how to grow up and be a good human being.’
Norris became involved with the Pony Club as a rider in 1975 before going on to travel around Australia working as a wrangler trainer for horses in movies, including The Man From Snowy River.
He returned to Forbes in 2000 and became re-involved with the Pony Club, which has around 50 members.
In late 2021, a 15-year-old girl who was a family friend of Norris and a member of the club was critically injured in a horse riding accident.
According to a local media report at the time, Norris, who was also the girl’s coach, and his wife were on the phone to her every day while she was in a coma in hospital and ‘urging her to hang in there’.
After his arrest, Norris was taken to the police station and granted strict conditional bail.
He will face Forbes Local Court on Tuesday May 21.
Strike Force Boche was established in October 2022 to investigate reports of historical child sexual abuse.
As investigations continue, anyone with information is urged to call police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The father-of-two has been hit with more than 70 historical child sex abuse charges
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