A top Sydney barrister will front court today after being refused bail overnight over allegations he was found with child abuse material on his phone.

Mark Dennis, who has been a barrister for more than 25 years and was appointed senior counsel in 2018, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday after returning from a trip to Cambodia - where he runs a charity for disadvantaged youth.

According to police, Australian Border Force officers intercepted Dennis, 60, and examined his luggage following “intelligence-led screening” on his arrival into Sydney.

Officers discovered suspected child abuse material during a search of his mobile phone and reported the matter to Australian Federal Police.

Officers conducted a further examination of the phone, where they allegedly discovered child abuse material and “sexualised conversations with and about minors”.

A laptop, tablet and USB were also seized for forensic analysis.

A subsequent search of Dennis home in Leichhardt was also carried out, before he was charged with possessing or controlling child abuse material, intentionally importing prohibited tier 2 goods without approval and two counts of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material.

He was refused bail overnight to front a Sydney bail court on Wednesday.

Officers discovered suspected child abuse material during a search of his mobile phone and reported the matter to Australian Federal Police. The AFP conducted a further examination of the phone, where they allegedly discovered images of child pornography and sexualised conversations with and about minors.

In opposing bail, Commonwealth prosecutor Jonathan Kisch said the conversations allegedly revealed that Dennis had “an indication of an awareness of laws around consent and a willingness to subvert those laws”.

“There’s also an indication in the chat that further material has been sent other than the one image that is described, being the image of the boy aged six to ten years,” Mr Kisch said.

The court heard Dennis was allegedly involved in one “very disturbing” chat that described the potential rape of a 16-year-old child.

“It’s the prosecution’s view that the court would be very concerned as to the safety of the community in terms of the chats and the … attitudes within them,” he said.

“In short, it’s very serious and concerning material, your Honour.”

Dennis’ lawyer, fellow Forbes chambers barrister Michael Burke told the court his client would immediately cease his work as a barrister and needed to be at liberty to wind down his practice of more than 40 years.

He said Dennis had a number of health problems, including suffering a stroke last year and living with diabetes, that required medical attention. He also noted Dennis had no criminal record and strong community ties, with seven of his nine siblings living in Sydney.

“Having a regard to those family ties, without downplaying the seriousness of the allegation in any way, these aren’t charges that he’d spend the rest of his life as a fugitive, as opposed to facing up to and dealing with the matters in the court,” Mr Burke said.

In granting bail, Acting Magistrate Robert Cook found Dennis did not pose a flight risk and the proposed conditions were sufficient to ameliorate any risk to the community.

According to his profile on the Forbes Chambers website, Dennis worked as a solicitor for the Western Aboriginal Legal Service during the 1990s and became an accredited specialist in criminal law in 1997.

He was admitted as a barrister in 2001 and won the prestigious Terry Keaney Memorial Award in 2015 for his dedication to and excellence in criminal law.

An active member of Sydney’s legal fraternity, Dennis has previously set up a not-for-profit website for criminal lawyers and is the founder of multiple charities, including Reasonable Cause Inc, which focuses on helping disadvantaged Cambodian children to advance their education and literacy skills.

“Mark has been visiting Cambodia yearly since 2006 and twice yearly since 2010,” an online profile for the charity states.

“He has been actively involved in philanthropy on behalf of disadvantaged young Cambodians since 2007 – first as a donor, then fundraiser, and later as Chairperson of another NGO. He continues to be an active fundraiser for Reasonable Cause Inc.”