Addict tried 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 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 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. Challenged by Corrective Services staff, O’Brien ran back towards the boundary fence. He ran away but fell down an embankment where he was apprehended by Goulburn Correctional Centre officers. Police arrested him. A search of his backpack revealed a parcel containing packets of tobacco and two packets of cigarette papers. Police said the parcels left in the bin contained packets of tobacco, cigarette papers, mobile telephones, lighters, compact discs, two balloons filled with methylamphetamine weighing 5.5 grams, gel caps containing Anavar steroids, diazepam tablets and a small plastic bag of cannabis, three SIM cards, two memory cards, one memory card reader and 5.7 grams of buprenorphine wafers. In court, O’Brien’s solicitor said his client had a history of drug abuse and that this had caused his offending.