A lawyer at the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions facing criminal charges over allegations she had sexual relationships with inmates has been barred from using apps including WhatsApp and Snapchat under tight bail conditions.
Vanessa O’Bryan, 32, has been accused of unlawfully accessing confidential information from the ODPP, receiving proceeds of crime, and having “an inappropriate sexual relationship” with inmates.
She was charged in October with three counts of misconduct in public office, two counts of accessing restricted data, and hindering the discovery of evidence.
Two new charges were laid in November: knowingly deriving a material benefit from a criminal group and knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime with the intent to conceal.
O’Bryan, who has been suspended without pay from the ODPP, is subject to tight bail conditions, varied by the Local Court on March 26.
The former criminal defence lawyer is barred from using or possessing more than one mobile phone and SIM card and must provide the password or PIN to police.
In addition, she must not “use or possess any encrypted device or any means of communicating via encrypted applications, including but not limited to WhatsApp, Snapchat, Wickr, Viber, KIK Messenger, Zoom, Discord, WeChat, Telegram or Signal”.
She is “not to enter or attempt to enter any correctional facility” and “not to contact or attempt to contact any person incarcerated in a correctional facility, including through another person, other than a legal representative”.
At the time of her arrest last year, O’Bryan was based in the Northern Rivers region. The prosecuting authority has an office in Lismore.
Police executed a search warrant at her Ballina home in the early hours of October 30 and seized mobile phones, computers and documents before she was taken into custody and charged.
A non-publication order made by the Local Court in December prevented O’Bryan’s name being reported until now, but the accused’s alleged relationships with gangland murderer Joshua Baines and inmate Terry Sampson was permitted to be reported.
The non-publication order on her name was overturned by the Supreme Court this month.
O’Bryan is “alleged to have had a sexual relationship with other inmates” and a “prolonged association with a number of criminals”, the order said. She is also accused of receiving “$5000, being the proceeds of crime”.
The ODPP said in a statement last year that it reported O’Bryan’s conduct to NSW Police in September “after detecting suspicious activity”.
It said this year that it took “all criminal accusations very seriously and continues to co-operate closely with NSW Police” and “a full internal investigation will take place after the criminal investigation has concluded”.
As part of her bail conditions O’Bryan must live at a property in the north-west Sydney suburb of Windsor and report to police once a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
She is also “not to apply for a new passport or other travel document” and must “not go within 1 kilometre of any international departure from the Commonwealth of Australia”.
The matter is next listed for a brief hearing on May 7 in Ballina Local Court.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
