Corrupt former prison officer Michael Charles Asker spared jail, but ordered to serve home detention, for smuggling drugs to inmates in exchange for bribes
A prison officer who took bribes to smuggle drugs to inmates has narrowly avoided joining them behind bars – but will spend the next few years being monitored by the peers he betrayed.
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Michael Charles Asker broke his oath as a prison officer to smuggle contraband to inmates – on Thursday, he narrowly avoided joining them behind bars.
Asker, 66, of Modbury Heights, looked visibly relieved as the District Court ordered he serve his two-and-a-half-year corruption sentence on home detention, rather than in prison.
Judge Liesl Chapman said Asker was fortunate to have avoided an immediate custodial sentence for accepting cash bribes to bring drugs into jails.
“I do think any time served in jail would be particularly harsh for you,” she said.
“But you must understand that harshness on its own would not cause me to order home detention.
“If your offending had gone on any longer, I think home detention would have been ruled out.”
Asker pleaded guilty to one count of bribery.
In September 2018, he took a fast-food bag containing suboxone – an opioid-withdrawal treatment – and glue into Yatala Labour Prison, and was paid $250.
In December 2018, he received a further $500 in an empty coffee cup in exchange for the illicit delivery.
Asker was subsequently intercepted attempting to bring another package, containing methylamphetamine, into the prison.
His counsel asked the court to show mercy saying Asker was motivated not by money but by his “bleeding heart humanitarian instinct” to help the disadvantaged.
They said his actions were also fuelled by his “slow-burn crisis of faith” in prison management, believing bureaucracy was being put before inmate welfare.
In sentencing on Thursday, Judge Chapman said that may well have been the case but it provided no excuse for Asker’s conduct.
“You have let yourself down as well as the community, which relies on people in your position to maintain confidence in the (prison) system,” she said.
“You relied on your prior good character to ask for leniency (but) it was the fact of that good character that allowed you to act in the manner you did.
“It’s of concern that there is no evidence you intended to stop what you were doing … it’s fortunate you were caught.”
Judge Chapman accepted Asker was now remorseful for, and had insight into, his offending and had “reasonable” prospects of rehabilitation.
She imposed a non-parole period of 15 months, and ordered Asker be subject to electronic monitoring – by his former peers – while on home detention.