A corrections officer who slept with an inmate and smuggled drugs to him behind bars has avoided jail, even though prosecutors urged the judge to throw the book at him.
Mother-of-two Amber Clavell, 25, became pregnant with convicted armed robber Michael Kennedy’s child at the Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre, near Windsor, in Sydney’s northwest, earlier this year.
Clavell and Kennedy were intimate between January and April while she was a programs and services officer in the prison’s intensive drug and alcohol treatment.
The court heard Clavell smuggled 33 grams of crystalline methylamphetamine stuffed into balloons and a bag of tobacco in her bra at Kennedy’s request.
The western Sydney mother was caught after she texted her friend and correctional colleague, Jessica Elguindy, when Clavell discovered she was pregnant with Kennedy’s child.
Elguindy was also in an intimate relationship with another inmate at the time and has since been sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order.
Clavell pleaded guilty to six charges, including accessing or modifying restricted data to seek information about Kennedy; misbehaving in public office; entering into an intimate relationship with an inmate that causes a security risk; and three counts related to tobacco and methamphetamine smuggling.
She choked back tears as Magistrate Stephen Corry sentenced her to two years and three months to serve an intensive community corrections order and 200 hours of community service at Penrith Local Court on Wednesday.
Amber Clavell, 25, was sentenced to two years and three months to serve an intensive community corrections order and 200 hours of community service on Wednesday.
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 criminal record 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 did not receive proper training for the job and was instead given a manual to read and told to “fake it ’til you make it” at the position.
Also taken into account was a letter Clavell wrote to the court detailing his “disgust and disappointment” at his actions.
“Her lack of professional qualifications and training was a significant contributing factor to her offending… She was thrown into the deep end and told to kick her legs and swim,” Magistrate Corry said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘She knew it was wrong and that it was very wrong. There was a breach of trust.’
Magistrate Stephen Corry considered the fact that Clavell (pictured at his graduation in 2022) had no previous convictions, was ‘vulnerable’ at the time and that he showed remorse and guilt over the relationship.
Clavell became intimate with convicted armed robber Michael Kennedy while working as an officer at the Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Center in Sydney between January and April.
Clavell’s lawyer, Brendan Green, had previously asked the court how sending his client to prison with no previous convictions would “benefit public safety.”
Green also made it clear that Clavell was the primary caregiver for her two children, ages three and four, who would suffer if their mother went to prison.
Prosecutor Craig Pullen had argued that setting an example for Clavell is necessary to send a clear message to the community and others.
“A critical message must be sent not only to the accused, but to the community and others who hold similar positions… (she) was entrusted with one of the most important positions through people who are in custody,” said.
Clavell and Elguindy were dismissed by Corrective Services NSW earlier this year.