Disgraced former MP Gordon Nuttall to be released from jail
A celebratory drink will be out of the question for disgraced former Labor Minister Gordon Nuttall when he steps out from behind prison walls after six years.
Queensland parole authorities today granted Nuttall’s application for release into the community, ruling he did not pose a risk to the public.
However, the board imposed several conditions, including a ban on alcohol and drugs, not speaking to the media or profiting from his offences.
He will be released on July 20 to a residence that has been pre-approved by parole authorities.
Nuttall will not be allowed to work in any occupation where he has access to finances and will have to obtain the parole board’s approval for any employment.
Government sources also told 7News Nuttall, 62, will be subjected to random drug and alcohol testing.
He is banned from going to pubs and clubs but can attend licensed restaurants such as Sizzlers, they said.
7News was told Nuttall can apply to the board to be able to drink alcohol with a ceiling of 0.05.
Nuttall was first incarcerated for seven years in July 2009 for receiving secret commissions.
He was convicted of accepting $360,000 in secret payments from mining magnate Ken Talbot and millionaire businessman Harold Shand while he was a Minister under former Premier Peter Beattie between 2002 and 2005.
Mr Talbot was to face the Brisbane District Court on August 30, 2010 charged with 35 counts of paying secret commissions to Nuttall. However in June that year, Mr Talbot was killed in a plane crash in the Congolese jungle in West Africa.
Shand was jailed for 15 months in 2011, suspended after four months, for paying $60,000 to Nuttall in 2002.
Nuttall pleaded not guilty to 36 separate charges of receiving secret commissions. He told the jury he had used the money to purchase homes for his children and denied doing political favours for the men in return.
At second trial on October 27, 2010, he was convicted on five counts of official corruption and five counts of perjury. He was then jailed for five years to be served cumulatively upon the sentences imposed in 2009.
In 2011, the Queensland Attorney-General appeal for Nuttall’s sentence to be increased was allowed and the sentences for each offence of official corruption rose to seven years each to be served cumulatively.
A new parole eligibility date was fixed for 17 July, 2015.
Nuttall ended up with a total sentence of 14 years for perjury, corruption and receiving secret commissions.
He appealed the convictions in 2013 but his application was dismissed.
He was charged after a lengthy investigation by Queensland’s criminal watchdog, the then Crime and Misconduct Commission.
Nuttall will be released from Palen Creek prison farm on July 20.
The conditions of his parole and monitoring will be lifted in July 2023, when his 14 year sentence ends.
Morning news break – May 22
