Prison guard Wayne Astill sentenced to 23 years in jail over inmate sex abuse

Senior correctional officer Wayne Astill was 60 when he raped and molested inmates in the women’s jail where he worked. He will be an old man by the time he is released from his own cell.

A disgraced prison officer who sexually abused multiple female inmates at a Western Sydney correctional centre has been sentenced to more than two decades in jail for his heinous crimes.

Wayne Astill, 66, subjected the women to degrading and predatory behaviour over a two-year period while they were incarcerated at women’s prison in Berkshire Park.

On Friday, NSW District Court judge Gina O’Rourke jailed Astill for a maximum of 23 years.

She set a non-parole period of 15 years and four months, backdated to begin when Astill was first taken into custody in August last year after jurors found him guilty of 19 offences following trial.

With time served, he will be eligible to apply for parole in December 2037, at the age of 81.

Wayne Astill pictured leaving the Downing Centre District Court during his trial last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Monique Harmer

The court heard Astill raped or molested more than half a dozen women between 2016 and 2017 while he was a chief correctional officer at the Dillwynia Correctional Centre.

Astill has also pleaded guilty to seven counts of misconduct in public office in relation to what he said were consensual, albeit inappropriate, sexual relationships with four inmates.

The Crown case was that Astill, a former police officer, “traded favours” with the women, such as giving them medicine and longer phone calls in exchange for sex.

The court heard in numerous cases the women had agreed to have oral or penile-vaginal sex with Astill because they believed they had no other option or were threatened with being moved to another prison.

Astill had originally pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him and was acquitted of 11 charges at trial.

During a sentencing hearing, three of Astill’s victims told the court they’d been left feeling embarrassed, anxious, trapped and isolated because of his abuse.

One told the court Astill had made her time behind bars a “complete nightmare”.

Meanwhile, the court heard Astill will be given the gift of anonymity throughout his jail sentence under a special classification handed to high-profile or at-risk prisoners.

“As I understand it, it is someone who is only referred to by their number, for safety (reasons),” defence barrister Jack Tyler-Stott told Astill’s sentencing hearing last month.

“He’s not known by name, there’s no reference to his name your Honour, and that’s clearly as a result of the risk that Corrective Services believe is presented to the offender.

“That’s something that has been sanctioned by the (prison’s) governor.”
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