Guard pleads guilty to crime ring charges
A former prison guard has pleaded guilty to a dozen charges relating to her involvement in a crime ring operating out of the Darwin prison.
Sarah Dawn Rudd, 26, on Thursday pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to several drug charges including unlawful supply of cannabis to Rebels bikie gang member Jared Davis, and also attempting to induce a person to give false testimony.
Rudd had been working at the Darwin Correctional Centre for four years when she was arrested in a police sting, Operation Moonraker, in June last year along with two other prison guards, her firefighter partner Anthony Butt, a police officer, and career criminal Phillip Noel Kaye.
Her barrister Jon Tippett QC told the court she was going through a hard time when she began using drugs, which her friends obtained from Kaye.
In exchange she tried to convince Kaye's former partner to drop aggravated assault charges against him, and also looked up information about other prisoners and procured cannabis for Davis, the sergeant-at-arms of the Rebels in the NT.
The court heard that Davis used her as a conduit to advise another man to give false testimony in the trial of former sailor Matthew Evans, who was last year convicted of breaking into a navy boat, tying up an officer and stealing guns to sell to the gang.
Rudd also admitted telling Kaye's girlfriend Zayley Ainslie when police dogs would be patrolling the prison and how to smuggle cannabis under her top lip into the facility for him.
"These offences constitute a serious undermining of the criminal justice system," prosecutor David Morters said.
"It's a significant breach of trust to be participating in the supply of drugs into a correctional facility."
Mr Tippett said Justice Jenny Blokland should be lenient in sentencing her because none of the charges resulted in any serious harm.
"She had been a prison officer who had (always) stuck to her ethical and professional responsibilities in the past and along came a period of significant uncertainty (and) emotional upheaval," he said.
Rudd only served two and a half months in prison in Alice Springs last year before being granted bail.
Mr Tippett indicated that Rudd was in a stable relationship with co-offender Butt, who was fined for possessing steroids, which she had smuggled back from a trip to Thailand for him in May last year.
Sentencing submissions continue.