Ex-lover hid jail escapee

A LOCAL grazier who hid from police with his lover in a Biggera Waters hotel room after she escaped from prison has been sentenced to two years’ probation.

Daniel Robert McJannett, 30, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court to several drug offences and harbouring an escaped prisoner after she had been on the run from Numinbah Correctional Centre for more than two weeks.

However, the night he spent with then jailbird partner Kristy Jones on January 16 could hardly be described as a longawaited romantic romp.

Defence solicitor Jodie Mair, of Moloney MacCallum Lawyers, told the court McJannett received a call from an emotionally unstable Jones, 34, who asked him to come to the Windsurfer Resort where a room had been booked.

The court heard Jones was suicidal and threatening to self harm before police raided the room and found McJannett and Jones, who had escaped from the rural jail with another woman on December 31.

Police also found drugs belonging to McJannett.

The court heard the pair met prior to Jones’ incarceration and developed a relationship but were separated when Jones was taken into custody for drug-related offences.

Ms Mair said McJannett was no longer in a relationship with Jones and she had not made contact with him until more than two weeks after her jailbreak. The court heard McJannett had lost a house he was paying a mortgage on due to an “ongoing battle with drugs”.

Earlier this year, Jones, who is a mother of two, was sentenced to 14 days jail.