Richard Buttrose’s sage advice for PR princess Roxy Jacenko
RICHARD Buttrose contacted his old friend, public relations princess Roxy Jacenko, from prison to offer some friendly advice after learning her husband Oliver Curtis was facing jail time for insider trading. It didn’t end well for Buttrose.
NSW
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IT was friendly advice from one eastern suburbs prison inmate to another: What a rich white boy needs to do to survive in the state’s prison system.
Convicted cocaine dealer Richard Buttrose contacted his old friend, public relations princess Roxy Jacenko, from prison to offer some friendly advice after learning her husband Oliver Curtis was facing jail time for insider trading.
Convicted ecstasy cook-turned-author Steven Spaliviero, who shared a tiny room with Buttrose for six years, said his cellmate suggested Curtis try to serve his one-year sentence in Long Bay jail.
But the call backfired when Buttrose found himself transferred from Sydney to Berrima jail in the southern highlands of NSW.
“He knew Roxy from the outside,” said Mr Spaliviero, who was released on parole a month ago. “They were friends and he decided he just wanted to help, that’s just the way he is.”
According to Mr Spaliviero, Buttrose spoke to his superior prison official about moving Curtis to Long Bay in Malabar from crowded Silverwater prison.
There is no suggestion Curtis was ever a client of Buttrose, but the former investment banker could have taken over Buttrose’s prison job in administration when Buttrose moved on to work release, Mr Spaliviero said.
However, senior prison staff were not impressed when they discovered Buttrose had used his friendship with Jacenko (pictured below right with Curtis) to lobby for Curtis’s move.
Mr Spaliviero said Buttrose was suddenly moved from Long Bay to Berrima jail: “He wasn’t happy because he felt like he didn’t do anything wrong.”
Having just been released on parole himself after serving 11 years behind bars for manufacturing 44kg of ecstasy in a lab in Riverstone, Mr Spaliviero has provided an eye-opening insight into the friendship he forged with Buttrose in jail.
The pair found common ground having both lived indulgent lifestyles of “fast cars, beautiful women and nice restaurants”.
He described Buttrose as a resilient man who studied an accounting degree and MBA and constantly talked about his kids.
“He is a very intelligent guy,” said Mr Spaliviero, who recently published a book titled Narco X based on his life. “I have never met anyone as smart as him. He was his own man. Our cell was full of photos of his kids, he was just so proud of them.”
Jacenko yesterday declined to comment.
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