DRUGS FIND A SET-UP, SAYS PRISON OFFICER

A Paparua Prison officer who was carrying about 100g of high-quality
cannabis as he was driving to work has told a Christchurch District Court
jury he must have been "set up".

Wayne Forsyth, 43, worked in the prison's east wing, where an unusually
high ratio of random drug tests on inmates in the previous six months had
been positive.

Three out of four of the inmates tested had used drugs, including among
prisoners who did not have contact with visitors or other inmates, the
court heard.

Police, acting on a tip-off that Forsyth had been introducing cannabis to
the jail, stopped his four-wheel-drive vehicle as he drove to do an
afternoon shift in charge of the wing on July 12 last year.

When questioned, he denied he had anything in the car he should not have
had but, when asked if he had drugs, immediately admitted having three
highly compressed rolls of cannabis ­ a style used by prisoners to carry
the drug rectally ­ in the pocket of his prison uniform.

It had been dropped in his letterbox that morning, and he was taking it to
prison to hand to the superintendent, but must have been "set up", he said.

Forsyth was charged with corruption for accepting a bribe ­ $40 in cash ­
to take the drugs into the prison, and with possessing the cannabis for
sale. The jury earlier heard him plead guilty to a charge of carrying a
letter for a prisoner.

Canterbury prisons operations manager Paul Rushton told the jury that
although it was accepted that drugs entered the prison through a range of
methods, he was concerned about the high rates of failed drug tests among a
group of prisoners who had no contact with visitors, or with other inmates.

Detective Kerry Mitchell said the raid on Forsyth's car and home had
followed a tip-off that he was the source of drugs entering the jail, but
he said the timing had not been in the knowledge that Forsyth would be
carrying cannabis.

In the witness box, Forsyth said he expected that drugs would always get
into jail, but no amount of money would convince him to bring drugs in for
inmates.

On July 12, he said he had cleared the junk mail from his letterbox at
about 9am, and found a bulky unaddressed envelope, which he took into his
bedroom, and found it contained the three rolls of what he was pretty sure
was cannabis, wrapped around two $20 notes.

"I sort of twigged what it was, and put it on the bed. A lot of things went
through my mind. Probably the first was that someone had the wrong
address," he said.

"I was puzzled, but I wasn't concerned at that stage. I didn't give it a
great deal of thought until the time came to get into my prison uniform,
and I made up my mind to take it (to Mr Rushton) to check it out or get it
tested."

Rupert Glover, defending, asked why he had not called the police. Forsyth
replied: "It didn't cross my mind at all. I honestly don't know why."

The jury was told that because Forsyth had more than 28g of cannabis, the
onus was on him to prove that it was more likely than not that he did not
have it to sell to others.

The corruption charge required prosecutor Kerrie White to prove beyond
reasonable doubt.

Judge Graeme Noble will sum up for the jury today.