Police commissioner's son jailed for 16 months over meth lab

true lilly Sat Sep 03, 2011 6:10 pm

Police commissioner's son jailed for 16 months over meth lab

Katie Robertson
From:PerthNow
September 03, 20118:51AM

Police commissioner's son jailed for 16 months over meth lab 372617-pn-russell-ocallaghan

JAILED: The Police Commissioner's
son Russell O'Callaghan arrives for sentencing. He will be eligible for
parole in eight months.Picture: Stewart Allen Source: PerthNow

POLICE Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan's son has been jailed for 16
months for his role in manufacturing drugs in a home laboratory.

Russell Joseph O’Callaghan, 30, suffered serious burns when a
clandestine drug laboratory exploded inside a Carlisle house on March 19
this year.

He was sentenced today in the District Court to 16
months in prison for attempting to manufacture the prohibited drug
methamphetamine.

He will be eligible for parole after eight months.

Judge Felicity Davis said a term of imprisonment was necessary to send a
clear message to the public that clandestine drug laboratories would not
be tolerated in the courts.

“The manufacturing of drugs, particularly methamphetamine, is a very serious offence and one that calls for a term of imprisonment,” she said during the sentencing.

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“It is a dangerous and addictive drug."

O'Callaghan had pleaded guilty to attempting to manufacture a prohibited drug, methamphetamine.

Three other men and a woman were also injured in the blast, while two young children at the Homeswest property escaped injury.

Two other men were also charged but have not yet been sentenced.

Judge Davis sentenced Mr O’Callaghan to 22 months imprisonment, but reduced
the sentence by six months because of his undertaking to give evidence
in the cases of the other two men accused over the incident, which she
said was a demonstration of his remorse. Judge Davis said an immediate term of imprisonment was necessary to reflect the seriousness of the crime.

"If I were to place you on a suspended sentence, even with conditions, that
would fail to reflect the seriousness of this offence," she said.

"Because of the seriousness of the offence, the only appropriate sentence is a term of imprisoment to be immediately served."

Judge Davis said she considered that O'Callaghan had attended a residential drug rehabilitation program since April.

O’Callaghan, the father of a two-year-old boy, appeared in the Perth Magistrates
Court in April to plead guilty to attempting to manufacture the
prohibited drug methamphetamine, but the matter was committed to the
District Court, where he was sentenced today.

The offence has a maximum imprisonment term of four years and $5000 fine in the
Magistrates Court, but is increased to a maximum 25-year jail term and
$100,000 fine in a higher court.

O’Callaghan’s defence lawyer Mark Andrews told the District Court that O’Callaghan had battled on and off with his drug addiction for the past decade, but had never sold or
supplied drugs to others.

"It would be an absolute tragedy to send this man to prison and undo these positive gains since April and his solid effort to rehabilitate himself and remain drug free," he said.

Mr Andrews said O’Callaghan’s role in the drug manufacture on that day
was “peripheral” and he had never been involved in the amphetamine
making process before.

He said O’Callaghan had agreed to supply one packet of cold and flu tablets to the ‘cook’ in return for 0.1g of methamphetamine, which has an approximate value of $100.

Mr Andrews said O’Callaghan had been “very active in his own recovery”,
having checked in at the Palmerston Farm drug rehabilitation centre
after he was released from hospital, where he resided up until his
sentence.

He had called on Judge Felicity Davis to issue a community-based suspended sentence to allow O'Callaghan to continue withhis rehabilitation.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Forrester said Parliament had mandated that an attempt to manufacture drugs should carry the same weight as an actual manufacture.

“Even an attempt to manufacture is so serious it hold the maximum penalty in this jurisdiction,” she said.

“It could not have occurred without him.

“This offence is exceptionally serious.”

She said the fact that children present when the laboratory exploded, the
community was endangered, and public housing was effectively destroyed
meant a term of imprisonment was the most appropriate sentence.

She added that an imprisonment sentence would serve as a general deterrent to the illegal manufacture of amphetamines.

Outside court, Mr O'Callaghan's lawyer told reporters Mr O'Callaghan was disappointed with the sentence.

"It simply reflects the increasing firming up of the courts' approach to sentences of this type," Mr Andrews said.

"I'm confident he will continue on the path of rehabilitation, he's made
great strides in that regard already and I've no reason to believe he
won't continue those as best he can during his period of incarceration
and thereafter."