Sarah Budge gun trial shown video of police raid
Video of the moment federal police discovered a gun in the home that John Ibrahim’s girlfriend and her model flatmate dubbed the ‘Princess Pad’ has been played at her Sydney trial. WATCH THE POLICE VIDEO
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Video of the moment federal police discovered a gun in the home that John Ibrahim’s girlfriend and her model flatmate dubbed the ‘Princess Pad’ has been played at her Sydney trial.
Glamorous restaurant manager Sarah Budge has pleaded not guilty to three weapons possession charges, blaming the Kings Cross identity or one of his associates for planting a loaded Glock 26 pistol in her bedroom without her knowledge.
Police video of August 2017 dawn raids at Budge’s Double Bay apartment was played at the 29-year-old model’s Downing Centre District Court trial on Wednesday.
In the footage, federal officers open a box in Budge’s wardrobe to find a stolen firearm wrapped in a black beanie alongside bullets.
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“Are there any other weapons on the premises that I should know about?” federal agent Kathleen Oehlers asks in an audio recording on August 8.
“No,” Budge says.
The defence says Budge’s 51-year-old lover or someone Mr Ibrahim knew stashed the gun in her messy bedroom days before the raids while she wasn’t home, and Budge laughs in the video while admitting: “it looks like a bomb site”.
Wearing jeans, sneakers and a grey cardigan, Budge leads officers through another room filled with clothes, moving boxes and suitcases, saying: “the Louis Vuitton bag is mine.”
Footage shows a ‘Princess Pad’ internet Wi-Fi username written on a pink fridge magnet with the password ‘negroni32’.
“Have you recently consumed any alcohol?” agent Oehlers later asks Budge.
“Last night,” she says.
“Are you sober now, do you think?”
“Yes, oh yeah, a hundred per cent sober … it was like two drinks … I’m definitely not drunk,” Budge says while giggling.
During the search Budge and her model flatmate Krystal Ford joked that “this was the most people they’d ever had over at the apartment”, the court heard.
Budge told police no one else had access to the unit while Ms Ford said the pair had moved in six weeks earlier and she’d never seen Mr Ibrahim there.
Ms Ford also mentioned she’d been working in the Seychelles the previous week but no one else was given access to the unit while she was overseas.
“Are there any weapons on the premises?” agent Oehlers asked.
“No,” Ms Ford replied.
“Any drugs?”
“No.”
“Any large sums of cash?”
“No.”
Police seized Budge’s Samsung Galaxy mobile phone and Mr Ibrahim’s computer, the court heard.
When Budge gave officers the password to her boyfriend’s Apple laptop, there was a scanned copy of Mr Ibrahim’s best-selling autobiography The Last King of the Cross on the computer screen, defence barrister Simon Buchen SC said.
He suggested officers were particularly interested in getting a copy of the book, but agent Oehlers said she didn’t know anything about it.
Under cross examination, the officer agreed Budge wasn’t in her bedroom while it was searched and officers didn’t begin filming until the gun had been taken out of the wardrobe.
Budge became “very upset” when she was arrested for the first time in her life that morning and exercised her right to silence, the court heard.
Budge was supported in court by her brother and father while Mr Ibrahim, who she’s been dating since 2014, did not accompany her.
The defence readily accepts that the gun, stolen from a registered dealer in 1999, had its serial identification number scratched out.
The Crown alleges that seven of Budge’s fingerprints were found on a paper bag inside the black box containing a magazine with 17 rounds of ammunition.
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.
And DNA linked to “an unidentified male” was allegedly found on the trigger of the pistol, prosecutor Chris Taylor said in his opening address.
The trial continues before Judge David Arnott.