From dreams of Prime Minister to facing court: Ben Shields' time in the spotlight

The 17-year-old was emulating his idol Pauline Hanson.

Despite not even being of voting age, he was already talking of his goal to be prime minister.

For the next 26 years, he would continue to make headlines.

His popularity as a councillor would grow as he fought against rate rises and reckless spending.

But in 2021, the tide changed. Allegations began to mount that Mr Shields had been abusing his power.

Then in 2022 he was charged with sexual assault.

Mr Shields has pleaded not guilty.

With his trial due to be heard in the Parramatta District Court from Monday, April 8, here's a recap of how the former Dubbo mayor's career has unfolded.

At 17, Mr Shields wanted to stand as Dubbo's candidate for One Nation in the NSW election.

"I'd rate my chances as excellent. My support is high and I think I'm good for the party, " he told the Daily Liberal.

He had joined the One Nation party after Ms Hanson visited Dubbo.

Mr Shields went on to admit some of his high school colleagues "think I'm plain weird".

"Occasionally you get the redneck and racist jokes, you know, 'been to any Klan meetings lately?' I just laugh back at them 'been to any communist party meetings lately?'"

He missed out for preselection, but by the following year, 1999, he was running for Dubbo City Council.

His slogan was to "give the young fella a go".

He campaigned against cotton for Dubbo and in favour of more youth ventures like a drag strip.

"When I first ran it was more or less and experiment to see how it would go. It was a tongue-in-cheek exercise where I thought if I made all my mistakes the first time than in four years time I'll know exactly what I'm doing," he said in 2019.

"It didn't quite work like that. I ended up being the 10th man elected in a 12-man council."

At 18, he was the youngest person to ever be elected as a councillor.

His first council meeting was the night before his Higher School Certificate exams.

Mr Shields said he believed he got elected because "people got sick of the old-style politicians who don't listen".

Looking back at his time on the council, Mr Shields would later say he was "probably too young to be elected". He said he was "manipulated a lot by the various people around the place".

By his third term on the council, Mr Shields was was topping the votes.

He had campaigned aggressively against a seven per cent rate rise earlier in the year, and that continued as it came time for the election.

He was also pushing for a popularly elected mayor. He wanted the public to be able to vote for who led the council, rather than the councillors.

At the 2008 local government election, Mr Shields received 4864 primary votes. The second highest candidate had 2572.

He attributed it to the people of Dubbo being sick of rate rises.

"They are fed up with the boys' club running the show and they are fed up with council servicing their own business interest," he said.

Mr Shields said he was given the election "on a silver platter" thanks to the "recklessness and irresponsibility" of other councillors.

What followed was a tumultuous time on the council.

During that term of council there were headlines about Mr Shields such as "A brutal bloodbath but at the end of the day it's politics" and "Tantrums, triumphs as mayor elected".

The tantrum came after Mr Shields failed in his bid for mayor in 2008. He said it was "not fair, not stable and not democratic".

In 2009 he told the public to stop contacting him via email over fears they may be read by the mayor at the time or the council staff.

Around that time, he said the council had been in "disarray" and he was "locked out" and feeling unwelcome in the council chambers.

But his ambition remained.

He ruled out running for mayor again, but said he may look to hold more lustrous offices.

"I've always believed if I did a good job on council, one day I'd naturally be promoted," Mr Shields said.

The "war of words", as it was referred to, came to a head in 2010.

A story ran in the Daily Liberal under the headline "Shields could be facing council's naughty corner".

Mr Shields was facing a six-month council suspension for using "offensive" and "abusive" words towards another councillor and calling him a "pathetic disgrace".

He was ejected from the council chambers.

However, after a review of his behaviour by the council general manager it was decided he wouldn't be suspended if he apologised to the councillor.

There were multiple runs for the mayoral seat and plenty of rumours throughout the years about Mr Shields running for NSW Parliament, but it wasn't until 2012 that he wound up in a position of leadership.

That year Mr Shields became deputy mayor under Mathew Dickerson.

It was promoted as a sign of unity.

"It's not the top job but look, it's showing the people of Dubbo there is a unified council and there's a joint ticket of two people who can work together for a better Dubbo," Mr Shields said.

Despite the new role, Mr Shields reassured the public that he was going to continue to be a "straight shooter" and "say it how it is".

It wasn't until five years later, under the newly-amalgamated Dubbo and Wellington councils that Mr Shields scored the "top job".

"Council in a lot of ways has suited me. I live and breathe it, there's no doubt about that," he said in 2019.

"I've come to know Dubbo like the back of my hand and I know the Local Government Act like the back of my hand. I still struggle with planning but I certainly love the gig."

In that same 2019 interview, Mr Shields admitted "there have definitely been failings in my term as mayor".

Two years later some of those failings would come to light.

In March 2021, Stephen Lawrence, who was deputy mayor at the time, and councillor John Ryan, called for Mr Shields to resign.

Mr Lawrence said they had "lost faith" in Mr Shields after a press conference two months earlier where Mr Shields had announced Bunnings was coming to the former RAAF base before the development had been approved by the council.

Two days later, on March 31, 2021, six councillors - Stephen Lawrence, John Ryan, Anne Jones, Vicki Etheridge, Jane Diffey and Kevin Parker - released a statement calling for him to resign.

The statement made allegations of "abuse of power, bullying, harassment, threats and intimidation".

In a comment posted on his Facebook page that afternoon, Mr Shields said: "I have only ever done what is right for Dubbo".

It was later revealed that on that day Mr Shields had attempted to take his own life.

He was admitted to intensive care and hundreds of people gathered at a vigil to wish him well.

He spent six days on life support and during that time had part of his lung removed after developing pneumonia.

On May 11, 2021, he returned to work as mayor of Dubbo.

But the allegations continued to build.

Through it all, Mr Shields continued to "strongly reject" all allegations he had violated the council's code of conduct or broken any law.

But he only remained in the role for another two weeks before he resigned. He said he was unable to be mayor because of the restrictions that had been imposed.

Under the restrictions he was banned from making phone calls unless someone else was in the room. He was also unable to be in the council building without a staff member present and any correspondence he wrote had to be read by a staff member before it was sent.

When announcing he was stepping back from the council, Mr Shields said the accusations against him ranged from the "serious to the laughable".

"The last few days I have been accused of so many things I have lost count. They have said that I have caused a death at council, to the laughable, where I was supposedly going to cut off water to [Taronga] Western Plains Zoo," he said.

Despite it all, when the election came around in December 2021, once again Mr Shields put up his hand. He would be running in the central ward.

He seemed confident about his re-election, saying he would "probably continue to be a councillor for a number of years".

But for the first time since 1999, Mr Shields was not elected to council.

The Ben Shields team had 645 first preference votes. And Ben Shields himself got just 203.

While he was no longer on the council, the story was not over.

In June 2022, Mr Shields was charged with a historical sex offence from 2003.

He has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting an 18-year-old who was known to him.

The trial will be heard in the Parramatta District Court from Monday, April 8.