Arabic version: ستيفن روش يواجه الحكم في قضية خطة هروب فارّ

According to ABC News, Irish national Stephen Roche will return to the Northern Territory Supreme Court on December 1 for sentencing after pleading guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice. Roche helped New South Wales fugitive Hussein Chamas attempt to escape Australia by yacht.

The court heard Roche picked up Chamas in Sydney under instructions from an international syndicate and drove him 4,680 kilometres in a rented campervan towards the Gove Peninsula. Chamas had used forged documents to flee a court-enforced stay at a rehabilitation centre. The journey took four days before the van broke down and the pair were towed into Nhulunbuy.

Chamas was met near a local beach by a yacht waiting offshore. Australian Border Force officers apprehended him and two other people in the Arafura Sea. Chamas was jailed in August until at least 2030 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of methamphetamine and trafficking a commercial quantity of cocaine.

Prosecutor Hadi Mazloum told the court that offences of this kind strike at the heart of the justice system and that imprisonment was the only appropriate penalty. He said Roche knew he was helping someone escape Australia illegally, though he agreed Roche’s expected $30,000 payment was driven by financial need rather than greed.

Roche’s lawyer, Ian Rowbottam, argued that the 123 days Roche had already spent on remand in Darwin’s Holtze prison were sufficient. He cited Roche’s pre-existing back injury, anxiety and depressive moods, while saying his client had shown remorse and entered an early guilty plea. Justice Meredith Day Huntingford said she would consider submissions in the complex case before sentencing.