A former ABC radio presenter has pleaded guilty to a string of serious drug offences including dealing methamphetamine and cocaine, telling a court he had brought “shame” to the national broadcaster.
Ashley Norman Hall, the former executive producer of the national broadcaster’s flagship AM radio show, faced jail in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday.
Hall was arrested in December 2022 as part of a New South Wales Police strike group aimed at dismantling drug supply networks operating in Sydney.
The court was previously told he was arrested after trying to sell drugs to an undercover officer.
Police seized Hall and then raided two hotel rooms on Wentworth St and Bond St in the heart of the city.
Police said they uncovered a cache of drugs during the raids, including gamma-butyrolactone, MDMA and cocaine.
Ashley Hall pleaded guilty to a string of serious drug offences and told the court she had brought “shame” to the national broadcaster.
The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to five counts of supplying a prohibited drug and one count of knowingly trafficking $87,820 from the offence.
His charges relate to the supply of 8kg of butanediol, 816g of methamphetamine, 85.3g of GHB, 662g of ecstasy and 78.5g of cocaine, according to an agreed statement of facts submitted to the court.
It is the second time Hall has appeared in court on a drug charge after being arrested in similar circumstances in 2019.
He previously narrowly avoided being sent to prison after police found a stash of ice, MDMA, cocaine, cannabis, LSD and the party drug gamma-butyrolactone when they searched his room on the 24th floor of the Meriton Suites on Pitt St.
On that occasion he pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying prohibited drugs and four counts of drug possession.
On that occasion he was given a 12-month community correction order.
Ashley Hall faced jail in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
Judge Penelope Hock, who is due to sentence Hall early next month, said it was a “tragedy” that he had not learned from the experience.
Before leaving the public broadcaster, Hall was executive producer of AM, as well as working as a reporter and presenter for ABC Local Radio and the programmes PM and The World Today.
He is currently in custody and has been denied bail since his arrest.
On Friday, he told the court that upon his release from prison he intended to write a book and make a podcast to “give a voice to people who otherwise wouldn’t have one.”
“The last 21 months in prison have been torturous, very difficult for me, but I have done everything I can to use that period to rehabilitate myself. I have taken advantage of everything that has been offered to me to help me with that,” Hall told the court on Friday.
Hall was arrested on suspicion of supplying illicit drugs after police seized $600,000 worth of drugs from two hotel rooms in Sydney’s CBD.
He described drugs as a “scourge” on the community.
Hall also said he had brought “shame and humiliation” to his friends, family and ABC, where he said he had “proudly worked for nearly 20 years.”
He also claims that before his arrest he was threatened at gunpoint by a drug dealer who demanded $120,000.
Hall took the stand to testify at a sentencing hearing before Judge Hock on Friday, denying he made up the story about the drug dealer.
He also said he was the victim of a raid on his home in 2021, but refused to make a statement because he did not trust the police.
Hall will be sentenced next Friday.