Cocaine dealing former cop who played rugby league for Australia to spend next three months in jail

An ex-cop who once played rugby league for Australia before dealing cocaine out of the Palmerston police station and stealing his service weapon will spend the next three months in jail.

• Cop’s cocaine dealing arose out of drug-fuelled affair with fellow officer, court hears
• Cocaine cop Daniel Keelan pleads guilty to stealing service weapon for ‘own use’
• Palmerston Raiders, NRL NT decline to comment on police officer and footy coach Daniel Keelan’s drugs and weapons charges

AN ex-cop who once played rugby league for Australia before dealing cocaine out of the Palmerston police station and stealing his service weapon will spend the next three months in jail.

Daniel Keelan pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to selling cocaine to then Senior Constable Brittany-Rose Kettle while the pair were engaged in an extramarital affair last year and taking home his Glock pistol without permission.

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The court heard the 43-year-old former Constable sold Kettle cocaine a total of 18 times during a six-month period, including once in a police car and other times while on duty at Palmerston.

He also took home a model 27 “concealed carry” Glock issued to him in 2017 along with 100 rounds of ammunition and kept it in a drawer beside his bed for the next three years.

In suspending Keelan’s 12-month sentence after three months, Justice Jenny Blokland said the case raised “serious community trust and confidence issues concerning police and law enforcement”.

“The public must have the utmost confidence in police and this offending is the antitheses of what we all expect form police officers,” she said.

“You had the good sense to resign from your position after your arrest, obviously it would have been untenable for you to remain.”

Former NT cop Daniel Keelan outside the Supreme Court prior to his sentencing on Monday.

Justice Blokland said while the offending did not involve Keelan’s position as a police officer “per se”, his conduct had “the real potential to corrupt, not only yourself but anyone with whom you interacted, including other police”.

“It is accepted by you that on a few occasions you were on duty and on those occasions supplies took place in the Palmerston police station,” she said.

“You were in uniform, at least one supply took place while you were on duty in a police vehicle.”

Justice Blokland said police first noticed the Glock was missing during a station inspection in 2018 but Keelan was never asked about it as it had been formally issued to another police officer to give to him.

Keelan’s lawyer, Jon Tippett QC, said it was “extraordinary” that no one had thought to ask the other officer who he’d given the gun to before it turned up in a raid on Keelan’s home last year.

“It’s extraordinary that the prosecution come before you saying ‘Look there was a Glock missing, no one knew it was missing’ when in fact it’s been signed out to (the other officer) and he was working with my client,” he said.

“So there is paperwork, plenty of it, no inquiries.”

Mr Tippett said his client had always intended to return the weapon and kept forgetting but Justice Blokland said she had “great difficulty in accepting that you outright forgot it”.

“It seems to me not to be the kind of item that one forgets,” she said.

But Justice Blokland also noted Keelan’s prior “outstanding good character” and “outstanding sporting career”, including having represented Australia in a rugby league tour of England.

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“I am mindful that I’m dealing with someone who up until the time of this offending has been a role model to many,” she said.

“It is a very sad situation, particularly for your wife and family and friends.”

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