Sarah Budge trial told illegal gun was planted at her home
Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim or one of his associates planted a stolen gun at the home of his model girlfriend without her knowledge, her lawyer says.
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Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim or one of his associates planted a stolen gun at the home of his model girlfriend without her knowledge, her lawyer says.
Restaurant manager Sarah Budge faced Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday for her illegal firearm possession trial with her father while Mr Ibrahim, who she’s been dating since 2014, did not accompany her.
“Mr Ibrahim or someone he knew placed the gun in the accused’s bedroom in the bottom of her wardrobe in the day or days before the police found it there,” Defence barrister Simon Buchen SC said.
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“This was done without her knowledge.”
Federal police allegedly found a loaded Glock 26 pistol with bullets inside a black box in Budge’s Double Bay apartment during dawn raids in August 2017.
The Crown alleges the weapon, which was wrapped in a “black police beanie” with its serial identification number scratched out, was reported stolen in 1999.
Budge has pleaded not guilty to possessing an unauthorised pistol, possessing a prohibited weapon without a permit and possessing a defaced firearm.
Prosecutor Chris Taylor said the 29-year-old’s fingerprints were found on a paper bag containing the ammunition magazine inside the black box.
That pharmacy bag also allegedly contained a single fingerprint belonging to Michael Frank Amante, a former Kings Cross strip club baron and childhood friend of Mr Ibrahim who denies ever owning the gun or visiting Budge’s home.
DNA linked to “an unidentified male” was also allegedly found on the trigger of the actual pistol, Mr Taylor said.
Budge’s lawyer said she has a clean criminal history and someone else placed the gun in the “messy wardrobe in her messy bedroom” while she wasn’t there.
“She had no idea that the gun or the magazine had been placed in her wardrobe,” Mr Buchen said.
Budge arrived at court wearing a $400 blue Scanlan Theodore skirt with a black Celine handbag worth more than $3,000.
Budge was asleep at Mr Ibrahim’s Dover Heights mansion when federal and state police raided it and multiple other Sydney properties on August 8, 2017 in connection with a suspected international smuggling ring.
Detectives were looking for Mr Ibrahim’s laptop when they searched Budge’s unit that morning but found something unexpected, the court heard.
Mr Buchen said it would be unfair to judge her because of “Mr Ibrahim’s reputation.”
No charges have been laid against Mr Ibrahim and the weapon charges against Budge are unrelated to the alleged syndicate.
Mr Ibrahim’s younger brother Michael has pleaded guilty to his part in the illegal importation of MDMA and tobacco and will be sentenced later this year.
Another brother, Fadi, was charged with allegedly helping finance the importation of the illegal tobacco. He denies the charges and awaits trial next June.
Budge’s model flatmate Krystal Ford told police that in her time at the apartment she’d never seen a gun or had any conversations about a gun, the Crown alleges.
The court heard in June that year Budge texted Ms Ford a picture of a wardrobe different to her Double Bay residence saying: “I’ve packed half my clothes, it’s begun.”
In the bedroom of that premises was a black box which is “similar in dimension and appearance” to the one seized from Budge’s home, Mr Taylor said.
Budge’s trial, which is expected to run for up to seven days, continues before Judge David Arnott.
Originally published as Sarah Budge trial told illegal gun was planted at her home
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