A prison guard who slept with an inmate and smuggled him drugs behind bars has avoided a prison sentence despite prosecutors urging a judge to throw the book at her.
Mother-of-two Amber Clavell, 25, became pregnant with the child of convicted armed robber Michael Kennedy earlier this year at the Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre, near Windsor in Sydney’s northwest.
Clavell and Kennedy became intimate between January and April while she was a program and service officer at the prison’s intensive drug and alcohol treatment facility.
The court heard that at Kennedy’s request, Clavell smuggled in 33 grams of crystalline methylamphetamine filled in balloons and a bag of tobacco in her bra.
The western Sydney mother was caught after texting her friend and fellow prison officer Jessica Elguindy when Clavell discovered she was pregnant with Kennedy’s child.
Elguindy also had an intimate relationship with another prisoner at the time and has since been sentenced to twelve months’ community service.
Clavell pleaded guilty to six charges, including opening or altering restricted data to search for information about Kennedy; misconduct oneself in public office; entering into an intimate relationship with a prisoner that endangers safety; and three charges related to smuggling tobacco and meth.
She fought back tears as magistrate Stephen Corry sentenced her to two years and three months and 200 hours of community service at Penrith Local Court on Wednesday.
Amber Clavell, 25, was sentenced Wednesday to two years and three months and 200 hours of community service.
The mother of two had an affair with an inmate just two years after graduating as a corrective services officer
Magistrate Corry took into account that Clavell had no past criminal convictions and that a forensic psychologist found her to be “emotionally vulnerable” at the time of her relationship with Kennedy.
He also noted that Clavell was not given adequate training for the task and was instead given a manual to read and told to “fake it.” [she] makes it’ in the role.
A letter Clavell wrote to the court detailing her “disgust and disappointment” at her actions was also taken into account.
‘Her lack of professional qualifications and training was a major contributing factor to her offending… She was thrown in at the deep end and told to kick the bucket [her] legs and swimming,” Magistrate Corry said the Sydney Morning Herald.
“She knew it was wrong and it was seriously wrong. There was an abuse of trust.’
Magistrate Stephen Corry found that Clavell (pictured at her graduation in 2022) had no previous convictions, was ‘vulnerable’ at the time and that she showed remorse and guilt for the relationship
Clavell became intimate with convicted armed robber Michael Kennedy while working as an officer at Sydney’s Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Center between January and April.
Clavell’s attorney, Brendan Green, had previously asked the court how sending his client to prison without a prior conviction would “advance public safety.”
Mr Green also made it clear that Clavell was the primary carer of her two children, aged three and four, who would suffer if their mother went to prison.
Prosecutor Craig Pullen had argued that Clavell should be made an example of to send a clear message to the community and others.
‘A fundamental message must be sent not only to the suspect, but also to the community and other persons in similar positions… [she was] who is entrusted in one of the most important positions by persons in custody,” he said.
Clavell and Elguindy were both dismissed by Corrective Services NSW earlier this year.