Cell Phone Scandal: Murderers On The Line
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 22, 2003
A high-level investigation is under way into how two of the state's worst criminals managed to smuggle mobile phones into the country's highest-security prison.
The Herald understands one of the prisoners is Michael Kanaan, who is serving three life sentences for murder.
While refusing to reveal the identities of the prisoners, the Corrective Services Commissioner, Ron Woodham, confirmed that ``a high-level investigation is under way" after mobile phones were discovered in the possession of two inmates on Friday, March 14.
Mr Woodham has not ruled out the possibility that prison officers might have been involved and has referred the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. ``Because the security regime at the High-Risk Management Unit is so rigorous, the potential for corrupt conduct cannot be ruled out at this stage."
Mr Woodham said that further searches and electronic detection surveillance had been carried out and he was certain ``no other phones are within the High-Risk Management Unit".
Kanaan and the other inmate are housed in the unit, known as Supermax, at Goulburn jail. It is supposed to be the most secure section within the most secure correctional facility.
There are only 15 prisoners in the 75-bed unit. Other inmates include the backpacker killer Ivan Milat, and Bilal Skaf, who received a 55-year-sentence for a series of gang rapes.
Yesterday, the Corrective Services Minister, Richard Amery, would say only that he was satisfied with the commissioner's action in referring the matter to ICAC. ``I support that action wholeheartedly."
But the Opposition corrective services spokesman, Michael Richardson, said: ``This shows there is a massive security problem in NSW prisons and they are not stopping contraband from getting into even the most secure jail in the state in the country."
Kanaan, 27, received two life terms for the 1998 shootings of Adam Wright and Michael Hurle outside the Five Dock Hotel. Last year he received another life sentence for the slaying of crime boss Danny Karam. The court heard Kanaan wanted a larger slice of Karam's drug empire.
Last month Kanaan received another three years after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the murder of the Sydney schoolboy Edward Lee.
Mr Richardson said his party had had on-going concerns about the Supermax, and particularly Kanaan.
``This is the man who, only six months ago, we discovered was recruiting a gang of cut-throat murderers by putting money into their corrective services accounts on the basis that when they got outside of Supermax, presumably they'd be able to act as his enforcers," he said.
Last September, Skaf's mother was banned from visiting her son for two years after security cameras revealed that she had hidden two letters from Skaf in her socks.
One of the letters reputedly contained a diagram of his isolation cell.
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald
