Cocaine cop Daniel Keelan pleads guilty to stealing service weapon for ‘own use’

The 43-year-old Palmerston Raiders rugby league coach pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to supplying his former colleague, Brittany-Rose Kettle, with 34g of cocaine.

• NT cop set to plead guilty to allegedly dealing coke, stealing police-issued gun
• Palmerston Raiders, NRL NT decline to comment on police officer and footy coach Daniel Keelan’s drugs and weapons charges

DISGRACED former NT Police constable Daniel Keelan has formally admitted to dealing 34g of cocaine to a fellow cop and stealing his service weapon for “his own personal use”.

The 43-year-old Palmerston Raiders rugby league coach pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to supplying his former colleague, Brittany-Rose Kettle, with less than a commercial quantity of cocaine, possessing a trafficable quantity of cocaine and stealing the Glock pistol.

Crown prosecutor Naomi Loudon said Keelan was issued with the .40 calibre handgun while working plain clothes duties during the Rugby League World Cup quarter-final in Darwin in 2017.

But instead of returning it to the station’s gun locker as required, Ms Loudon said Keelan took the weapon home along with 100 rounds of ammunition and kept it in a bedside drawer.

Then between April and September last year, Ms Loudon said Keelan supplied Kettle with coke on 18 separate occasions, selling her 1g amounts for between $400 and $500 each.

On the afternoon of September 2, Ms Loudon said Keelan drove to a park area in Durack where he met his dealer, who he contacted via Snapchat to make their communications harder to intercept.

Former NT cop Daniel Keelan has pleaded guilty to dealing cocaine to a fellow officer and stealing his police issued Glock handgun.

“During this meeting the offender gave (her) $2000 cash as a prepayment for 4g of cocaine,” she said.

“He advised her he would give her another $2000 later in the evening for the purchase of a further 4g of cocaine.”

Ms Loudon said Keelan then later met up with the woman again and bought the second batch of drugs “with the intention of sharing some of the cocaine with Kettle”.

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At about 7am on September 18, Keelan was arrested in Farrar and officers raided his home in Johnston where they found the Glock in his room along with 0.97g of cocaine in the kitchen pantry and a number of fireworks.

In an interview with police, Keelan admitted to supplying the drugs and stealing the handgun and was later granted bail on September 21.

Justice Jenny Blokland ordered Keelan be assessed for supervision on a potential suspended sentence and adjourned the hearing until March 26.

Kettle was arrested on the same day as Keelan but later pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to possessing a small amount of cannabis and walked away without a conviction.

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The 28-year-old former Senior Constable’s lawyer, Ray Murphy, told the court she was only looking after the cannabis for a friend and had resigned due to her “shame and embarrassment”.

Raiders president Rodney Greenwood said Keelan hadn’t been back at the club since last year but declined to comment further while the case was before the court.

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