Moree's Justice Sarah Huggett is appointed to the role of top NSW judge

Justice Huggett will be the first woman Chief Judge of the District Court of NSW.

Born In Moree as one of eight children, Justice Huggett is the daughter of a police officer, and herself a mother of two.

In 1993, Justice Huggett joined the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and was DPP's sole instructing solicitor in the prosecution of Ivan Milat.

Justice Huggett holds a Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University and went on to graduate with first class honours in Law from The University of Sydney in 1991.

She completed her Master of Laws in 1995 and was an adjunct professor at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 2009.

Justice Huggett was appointed Crown Prosecutor in 2001 and later sworn in as a District Court Judge in 2012, where served with distinction on the bench for 12 years and was a contributor to improvements in the operation of the courts for many years.

She was the appointed to the NSW Supreme Court in 2023, and presided over many high profile and complex matters which attracted widespread media interest, including the carnal knowledge trial of convicted murdered Christopher Dawson.

Justice Huggett has also played a significant role in updating the Criminal Trial Bench Book, which assists judges in running criminal trials.

She was one of the judges of the District Court's Walama list, a trial of alternate sentencing procedures aimed at reducing the incarceration of, and reoffending by, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Justice Huggett set prison terms of more than 40 years for two men who, in separate cases, committed violent sexual offences against their biological daughters, sentences which survived on appeal.

She also sentenced a swim school teacher to 32 years imprisonment for a large number of historic sexual offences on children.

Justice Huggett has stated the lengthy sentences she has delivered in cases of sexual offence against women and children were designed to punish the offender, denounce their conduct, protect the community and recognise the harm done to the victims.

Law Society of NSW president, Brett Mcgrath, congratulated Justice Huggett on her appointment and said she would bring an "extraordinary breadth of experience" to the role.

"In addition to her outstanding history in criminal law as a solicitor, barrister and Crown Prosecutor, Justice Huggett has also been involved in diversionary and pioneering models of justice," he said.

Mr Mcgrath noted the significance of Justice Huggett's appointment as the first woman in the role.

"The increased diversity of the legal profession is pulling us into the future, and we are stronger for it," he said.