Former top cop John McRoberts goes free from home detention

DISGRACED NT Police Chief Commissioner John McRoberts will again be free to come and go from his rented Cullen Bay home from today as his six-month home detention order comes to an end

Disgraced former NT Police Chief Commissioner John McRoberts will again be free to come and go from his rented Cullen Bay home as his 12-month home detention order comes to an end. Picture: Glenn Campbell

DISGRACED  former NT Police Chief Commissioner John McRoberts will again be free to come and go from his rented Cullen Bay home from today as his six-month home detention order comes to an end.

McRoberts was released into home detention just before Christmas after serving almost seven months of a three-year jail sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The former top cop was found guilty by a jury last May in one of the Territory’s most high profile court cases in recent memory after trying to “frustrate” or “deflect” a fraud investigation into his travel agent girlfriend Xana Kamitsis.

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McRoberts was initially ordered to serve one year in jail before being granted release on a suspended sentence.

In sentencing McRoberts this time last year, Justice Dean Mildren said that as police commissioner, McRoberts was “expected to uphold the law, not actively seek to breach it”.

“As commissioner, the public has the right to expect that, of all people, you could be trusted absolutely to use your powers in accordance with your oath of office and not for personal or improper purposes,” he said.

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“I find that your behaviour requires a significant sentence of imprisonment in order to deter others from offending in a similar manner and to mark the public and this court’s disapproval of your conduct.”