Sydney drug addict jailed for trying to break into jail
People usually try to break out of jail, not into it.
But earlier this year, Gregory Alan O’Brien, 32, of Blackett, in Sydney’s west, tried to break into the Goulburn Correctional Centre to deliver drugs and other contraband.
He was captured while fleeing from the facility after the botched break-in and, on Wednesday, pleaded guilty in the Goulburn Local Court to entering land with intent to commit an indictable offence, unlawfully entering a place of detention, possessing a prohibited drug, bringing a prohibited drug into a place of detention and supplying a prohibited drug.
O’Brien was jailed for a maximum of two years for his efforts.
Police facts tendered in court said that, on February 10 at 11.44pm, on a tip-off, Corrective Services staff observed a Toyota Camry station wagon driven by O’Brien park at the rear of the Goulburn jail near X Wing.
O’Brien was seen to jump the boundary fence near a water tank and maintain a crouching position for a short time before moving off in the direction of the kitchen area.
He was observed placing items from a backpack through a steel gate into a garbage bin.
Intercepted and challenged by Corrective Services staff, O’Brien ran back towards the boundary fence.
He ran 150 metres before falling down an embankment where he was apprehended by Goulburn Correctional Centre officers.
Police arrived a short time later and arrested him.
A search of his backpack revealed a parcel containing 20 packets of White Ox tobacco and two packets of cigarette papers.
When asked what he had put in the bin, he said he had placed two parcels there.
The police located the parcels and found them to contain: 10 packets of White Ox tobacco, four packets of Tally Ho papers, three mobile telephones, six lighters, five compact discs, two balloons filled with methyl-amphetamine weighing 5.5 grams, gel caps containing Anavar steroids, 10 diazepam tablets and a small plastic bag of cannabis weighing 3.37 grams, three SIM cards, two memory cards, one memory card reader and 5.7 grams of buprenorphine wafers. When police interviewed O’Brien, he told them that he had attended a number of locations that day and collected the parcels from unknown people.
He had bought the 30 packets of White Ox for A$2100 and five CDs for A$100, he said, but conceded he had received A$3100, which was deposited into his bank account as payment for the goods, his time and petrol.
In court, O’Brien’s solicitor said his client had a history of drug abuse and that this had caused his offending.
‘‘It was not a very sophisticated plan to get his items into the complex, but it was done for money to finance his drug habit,’’ his lawyer said. – Fairfax