Rian Kinloch: Safety fears after Michael Black Parklea death
A man hatched a plan to sell up to $77,000 of drugs while in prison. However, his legal representative argued he should not be jailed for the fresh offence given reports that his safety is at risk following the stabbing death of a former co-accused.
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Concerns over a man’s safety in prison have been aired in court after his former co-accused was stabbed to death at Parklea jail in April.
Rian Kinloch faced Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday, where he pleaded guilty to three charges, including supply prohibited drugs, use prohibited weapon contrary to prohibition order and possess or use prohibited weapon without permit.
The court heard a charge of conceal a serious indictable offence had been dropped earlier this year, after his co-accused Michael Black was stabbed to death at Parklea jail on April 22.
The charge was initially laid on the pair after police claimed they tried to cover up a brazen alleged shooting that occurred less than 70 metres from a Dapto primary school late last year.
On Wednesday Kinloch’s lawyer Laura Funnell told the court was in fact a victim of the shooting, and that there had been “heightened security fears” for him following Black’s alleged murder.
“During his time in custody [corrective services] received intelligence concerning Kinloch’s protection following Mr Black’s unfortunate demise in prison,” she said.
“Due to that there was fear about him going to either Parklea or Wellington [jails].”
Kinloch was released on bail after the charge was dropped, however, was taken back into custody on June 15, after the intelligence at Wellington also revealed he’d hatched a plan to smuggle up to $77,000 worth of drugs into jail.
Kinloch pleaded guilty to the charge on Wednesday.
Ms Funnell said his sentence would be best served the community as she claimed he’d got his life on track while on bail between April and June.
“He in fact committed more offences in custody than when he was on bail,” she said.
“While on bail he’d been working as a hairdresser in Thirroul and it was going pretty well.”
Court documents revealed Kinloch had used jail phones to call three women numerous times between March 1 and March 11 as part of a scheme to sneak 194 buprenorphine strips into Wellington Correctional Centre.
During these phone calls, the foursome hatched a plan to procure and smuggle the buprenorphine strips into the jail so Kinloch could sell them.
On March 11 court documents set out that one of the women took the drugs to Unanderra Post Office and posted them to an address in Dubbo.
On March 16, Wellington Correctional Centre received information from Correctional Intelligence Officers that Kinloch had been making suspicious phone calls, and that a package full of drugs destined for the jail would be arriving in Dubbo later that day.
Police were able to intercept the delivery, finding 8.2 grams of buprenorphine strips stuffed inside several water balloons, a “common concealment method for drugs to be taken into jail”, police claim in the documents.
Police contacted the jail and staff said that each strip had a jail price tag of between $100 and $400. In the documents, police claim that if Kinloch had the chance to sell the drugs, he could have made between $38,800 and $77,600.
On Wednesday, Ms Funnell argued Kinloch’s scheme was not “sophisticated”, telling Magistrate Claire Girotto he “wasn’t a mastermind” and that a jail sentence could be avoided.
“He’s been captured on intercepts and he accepts what he did,” she said. “He’s not a mastermind and that planning could have been more sophisticated”.
However, police prosecutor Sergeant Dave Weaver argued a jail sentence was necessary, given the fact he tried to sneak illicit drugs into a jail.
“He knows the effect they could have had on other inmates and that he could put guards at risk,” he said.
“He organised people outside of jail so he could set up a financial enterprise he would gain from”.
The other two offences Kinloch admitted to on Wednesday related to a search of his home on November 21 last year, where police found a knife hidden down the side of his mattress, despite him being subject to a weapons prohibition order.
Magistrate Girotto adjourned the case until later this month to consider whether an intensive corrections order, as suggested by Ms Funnell, would be appropriate for Kinloch’s offending.