[3][4] In April 2021, Brierley pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child abuse material and resigned his 1988 knighthood after the government had initiated the process of having it removed.

[10] On 18 December 2019, various news outlets reported that Brierley had been arrested in Sydney on charges of possession of child sexual abuse material.

[11] He pleaded guilty in 2021, and the process of his being stripped of his knighthood was begun by Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's then prime minister.

As chairman Brierley publicly attacked and defeated the plan to merge the London Stock Exchange with Deutsche Börse in 2001.

He was a member of the Independent United Action Group which, under the leadership of Saul Goldsmith, campaigned to preserve the city's tramway system and halt drinking water fluoridation.

[21][22][23] In December 2019, Brierley was stopped and detained at Sydney International Airport following an anonymous tip-off, and he was arrested after a search of his carry-on luggage had police officers discover a large quantity of child abuse material- more than 11,000 images and a number of videos featuring girls as young as four years old.

[27] The same day, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, announced that she had started moves to strip Brierley of his knighthood.

[31][32] However, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal allowed Brierley's legal team to challenge the term on 1 February 2022, on the basis of a claim that he had a "fear" of falling in the showers.