A former senior Australian diplomat and World Bank consultant has admitted sexually abusing two seven-year-old girls and an eight-year-old boy at his apartment in Washington DC.
Thomas Austin Mahony, 44, was arrested and charged in July last year but has now made a plea deal with prosecutors under United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, and will be sentenced on October 23.
Mahony, who has been held in a DC prison without bond since his arrest due to community safety concerns, pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted first degree child sexual abuse, one count of second degree child sexual abuse, and one count of misdemeanour child sexual abuse.
The offence of attempted first degree child sexual abuse has a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment, second degree child sexual abuse carries a 10-year maximum sentence, and the misdemeanour charge is punishable by up to 180 days’ jail.
Mahony, who has three sons with his Japanese wife, will also be put on the District of Columbia sex offenders’ register for life.
He was originally facing life imprisonment if found guilty first degree child sexual abuse, but his charges were downgraded as a result of the plea deal, and prosecutors also agreed not to indict him on federal aggravated sexual abuse and transportation of minors charges.
The offences, which are too graphic to describe, took place between February 1, 2023, and July 13, 2025, and involved three child victims, but the second two children were only abused because prosecutors did not act on a 2023 complaint.
According to documents filed in Mahony’s case, the first victim, a seven-year-old girl, reported to police that she had been abused during a play date with his children at his home in February 2023.
An arrest warrant was issued and a civil protection order was taken out against Mahony, but the US Attorney’s office declined to prosecute due to “consideration of the government’s burden of beyond a reasonable doubt”.
Then in July last year the parents of the second two victims reported more sexual abuse allegations concerning their children, a different seven-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy.
Their mother, whose children were friends with Mahony’s and were around the same age, later told The Washington Post that she had trusted Mahony and now felt like she “failed as a mother”.
“I told my husband if there is a family we can trust, it must be this family,” she said, adding that he was once considered a “hero of the community”.
The families were friends and lived in the same apartment building.
Mahony, whose wife returned to Japan with their three sons after his arrest, worked as First Secretary for the Australian Embassy before moving on to the World Bank, and volunteered as a photographer at children’s swimming teams in the DC area.
The World Bank dismissed Mahony after his arrest and a spokesperson said at the time: “The World Bank has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation. Our staff rules do not permit us to comment on personnel matters.”
Mahony grew up in rural Victoria, graduated from ANU with a degree in Asian Studies and Economics, worked for the Australian Treasury, and in 2014 was a delegate for the Australia-China Youth Dialogue while working as a North Asian analyst for the Australian Government.
Left, right, Thomas Austin Mahoney.
