From powerbroker to librarian — the prison transformation of Eddie Obeid

HE’S turning over a new leaf — disgraced Eddie Obeid has slimmed down and taken on a job as a librarian behind bars.

How Eddie Obeid appeared when leaving the Supreme Court after being found guilty of misconduct in public office in June last year. Picture: Toby Zerna

HE has slimmed down, taken on a job as a librarian and is working on his memoirs.

Almost one year since former Carr government minister Eddie Obeid was jailed after being found guilty for public misconduct, the Labor powerbroker has been moved out of the special protection unit he shared with 16 paedophiles and rapists to serve the remainder of a three-year sentence in the minimum security prison at Berrima.

Sources close to Obeid say the 74-year-old is barely recognisable, having lost around 29kg from exercising during the four hours he was allowed out of his cell while in maximum security at Silverwater.

Police mug shot of Obeid.

Entering the Supreme Court last December.

Other than exercising, Obeid has been passing the time talking to the child sex offenders and rapists that were also housed in his unit, many of them priests.

Among them, the indigenous uncle of a high-profile NRL player became his closest friend and confidante while in the unit.

Family fears the high-profile Maronite Christian inmate would attract undue attention from the Lebanese Muslim prison population upon entering prison were unfounded, with Obeid treated as one of the “community”, a source said.

“People were dropping by to say hello, bringing him cans of food, magazines and newspapers,” the source said.

While Obeid was never classified a maximum security inmate, prison correspondence sighted by The Sunday Telegraph shows he was kept in Silverwater for protection and medical reasons after having suffered a stroke.

Since being moved to Berrima, Obeid is understood to be working on his memoirs while working in the prison library.

Upon being transferred to the prison known for its “white collar” inmates, Obeid exercised with convicted drug dealer Richard Buttrose whom he has described as “a nice guy who’s done his time”, while also helping him prepare to face the media upon his release.

Obeid, who retired from parliament in 2011, was jailed in December last year for a maximum of five years with a minimum non-parole period of three years over business dealings at Circular Quay.

He will be eligible for parole on December 15, 2019.

Almost 300km away, fellow jailed Carr government minister Ian Macdonald is serving out a maximum 10-year sentence in Cooma for granting a coal exploration licence to Doyles Creek Mining, a company chaired by former union boss John Maitland.

Obeid has been featured prominently in the current Bennelong by-election campaign, with the Liberal Party using his role in helping secure the numbers for Labor candidate Kristine Keneally to become premier in 2009 as part of a smear campaign.