Convicted cocaine dealer Richard Buttrose has walked free from jail ‘a better person’
WITH his life over the past eight years packed into two small cardboard boxes, Richard Buttrose yesterday grinned from ear to ear as he walked out of Berrima Correctional Centre, declaring himself “a better person”.
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IF ever there was proof that you can learn from your mistakes, Richard Buttrose wants us to believe he is it.
The former drug dealer to the eastern suburbs smart set left jail yesterday with not one, but two university degrees earned during his years behind bars.
Grinning ecstatically as a female supporter skipped up the gravel path to greet him at the exit of Berrima Correctional Centre, a repentant Buttrose vowed the cocaine-fuelled lifestyle that caused his life to spiral out of control was now behind him.
“I made a big mistake a long time ago,” he said, as he carried two cardboard boxes, all he had to show for nine years of prison life, to a waiting black Mercedes hire car.
“I have done my time. I did the best to make the most of my time, I did two university degrees and now I am out a better person.”
Buttrose, the nephew of media identity Ita Buttrose, had been up since 3am awaiting the moment he could leave the prison yard behind him.
That chance came when, just after 8am, an announcement about “inmate Buttrose” bellowed across the Southern Highlands jail’s PA system. Within the hour, his female friend and a male supporter drove up in the Mercedes.
“Welcome to freedom,” she yelled as she threw her arms around him, planting a kiss on his cheek as he emerged through the prison’s red door shortly before 9am.
Having noticed reporters waiting outside, the woman asked if he wanted a hat or sunglasses, presumedly to help hide his face.
But Buttrose, dressed in a white collared shirt over the top of his prison-issue green T-shirt, was clearly happy just to be free.
A prison guard then shook his hand, patted him on the back and wished him good luck.
Looking older and wiser, with a degree in accounting and an MBA, the freshly shaven 45-year-old said he felt “fantastic” as he began his new life on parole, having served eight years and nine months for supplying cocaine.
First stop, he said, would be a dip at Bondi Beach.
Nestled in the back seat of the Mercedes, Richard Buttrose buckled up for the hour-and-a-half drive back to his old stomping ground in the eastern suburbs.
Stopping briefly at a house in Bellevue Hill to grab a straw hat and boardshorts, he returned to the car and headed for North Bondi.
Sporting a prison tan and accompanied by his sister and their friend, he jumped off the rocks into the still water.
It is understood Buttrose then spent the afternoon at a welcome home barbecue in Bellevue Hill, surrounded by friends and family and that he will stay at the home of his mother, Elizabeth Buttrose, until he gets back on his feet.
The former restaurateur and friend to the stars was sentenced in 2010 to at least 12-and-a-half years in jail, a term that was later reduced on appeal.
Buttrose’s arrest sent shockwaves through Sydney’s eastern suburbs, especially the clientele named in the infamous black book that police found in his Mercedes when he was arrested.
The names on that list were rumoured to include a senior NSW politician, a film star, lawyers and high-profile media identities.
After his arrest, police discovered almost 6kg of cocaine and $1.3 million in cash at his properties in Paddington and Darling Point.
His wife Pollyanna and the couple’s two children moved to the UK after Buttrose was placed in protective custody.
Buttrose’s plunge into drug dealing began in the late 2000s when his dealer encouraged him to sell cocaine to his friends. He took up the offer but ended up giving the drugs away for free.
In a bid to repay the debt he accrued, he took kilograms of cocaine on consignment and began to sell it.
He soon became “the man”, attracting social status and attention that he found very rewarding, according to a psychologist who testified at his court case in 2010.
His drug use blindsided his family, including his aunt, Ita Buttrose.
She once described Richard Buttrose as “the last person in the world” she imagined would use or sell cocaine.