Police hold ‘serious concerns’ over missing former Nationals MP

After leaving parliament, he opened a government consulting business, and ran a series of restaurants in the Muswellbrook and Tamworth areas. Johnsen was known to visit the Barrington Tops, a national park about two-hours north of Newcastle, and friends were hopeful he may have gone camping in the area.

Layzell, who won the seat in a by-election following Johnsen’s resignation, said he was “I certainly hope they find him well. He’s had a tough few years. I can only hope he’s OK,” he said.

Johnsen resigned from parliament with a “heavy heart” after a Labor MP, Trish Doyle, used parliamentary privilege to claim a “government MP” had been accused of raping a sex worker at a secluded lookout in her electorate of the Blue Mountains.

Within hours, Johnsen had issued a statement revealing he was the MP at the centre of the allegations but vehemently denied them. He was never charged.

He was removed from the Nationals and Coalition party rooms, and suspended from the National Party. He resigned from parliament a week after the allegations were first raised following the publication of a series of text messages showing he offered to pay a sex worker to have sex in NSW Parliament and sent the woman a string of lewd text messages and an obscene video while Parliament was sitting.

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