LiveNews | Richard Maxton
Mobile phones have been found in the prison cells of notorious gang rapists Bilal and Mohammed Skaf, raising questions about security at Goulburn jail.
Muslim Gang Rapists, Bilal & Mohammed Skaf.Acting on intelligence, guards at Goulburn Correctional Facility's maximum security division searched the pair's cell on Tuesday.
"During the search they found hidden in the bottom of a cabinet, underneath a steel plate which was riveted to the cabinet frame, two mobile phones," a Department of Corrective Services spokesman said.
The brothers were strip-searched then split up after the breach was discovered, with Bilal, 26, placed in isolation at Goulburn while Mohammed, 25, was tranferred to Lithgow jail.
Bilal Skaf was found guilty of leading multiple pack rapes in Sydney in the leadup to the 2000 Olympics, summoning his friends by mobile phone for the attacks.
His brother Mohammed was found guilty for his part in four rapes, luring young women into the attacks, one of which lasted over six hours.
A major investigation is reportedly underway into how the two phones found their way into the Skafs' cell, with video footage set to be scrutinized.
Officers rostered in the brothers' wing will also be interviewed, a senior officer at Goulburn said.
While the Skaf brothers have had recent visitors, the prisoners were searched before and after the visits.
It is not the first security infraction involving the brothers. In 2002 the Skaf's mother, Baria, was banned from visiting all NSW jails after being caught on video trying to smuggle letters from Bilal to his fiance containing sketches of his cell and exercise yard.
In September of the same year the Skaf's father, Mustapha, was accused of trying to bribe security guards to let him talk to his son on the phone.
In August 2002 Bilal was sentenced to 55 years in jail, with Crown Prosecutor, Margaret Cunneen, said Skaf's actions, described as ethnically motivate hate crimes, had left a stain on the psyche of the citizens of NSW.
Then Premier Bob Carr said he was happy to see the "sort of sentence the community expects."
In October of the same year Judge Michael Finane described Mohammed as "a vicious, cowardly bully" before sentencing him to 32 years.
Bilal is now due to be released in 2031, while Mohammed can't apply for parole until 2018 after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal allowed minor reductions in their sentences.
Update:
How the evil Skaf brothers obtained mobile phonesBy Rhett Watson and Kara Lawrence
The Daily Telegraph
May 29, 2009 12:00am
THE gang rapist Skaf brothers prised apart a steel cabinet to hide two mobile phones in their maximum security jail cell.
The details of the pair's underhanded concealment methods emerged last night as prison authorities remained baffled as to how two of the country's most notorious criminals smuggled phones into Goulburn prison.
One option being considered is that the phones were thrown over the prison walls, which Corrective Services senior officer Don Rodgers admitted could occur.
The phones' discovery last night led Commissioner Ron Woodham to vow that Bilal, 27, and Mohammed, 26, will never see each other again while they are behind bars.
Gallery and video: Come inside Goulburn's Supermax prison
"No. Never. They'll be in different jails and they'll never be together again," he said.
Both were strip-searched after the phones were found and moved into segregation where they will stay for two to three months until the investigation is complete.
Mohammed was moved to Lithgow jail and Bilal will remain in Goulburn jail's segregation section. One of the phones had a SIM card, making it live. There was no reason to believe it had not been used.
Prison investigators will use the SIM card from the Skafs' phone to work out how many calls were made, to whom and, possible, how long it has been in the jail.
There was speculation in Corrective Services that the calls would be more of a personal nature than criminal.
Prison officers only became aware of the smuggled contraband after a tip-off led to a raid on several cells on Tuesday morning.
Inside Goulburn Supermax
The brothers, who shared a cell, had managed to drill out the rivets on a cabinet which has a tubular steel frame and sheet metal covering it.
They had popped one of the sheets off the bottom of the cabinet, hidden the phones on the frame and then placed the sheet metal skin back over it.
"After that we've ramped up the searches in the jail and pulled apart every piece of furniture in all the cells," Mr Woodham said.
"We had a special team brought down from Sydney to get involved and we had about 80 to 90 officers from different areas sent in to do the search."
While Prisons Minister John Robertson yesterday said the discovery of the phones showed the "system actually works", the State Government was criticised that two notorious criminals, guilty of the worst pack rapes in NSW, were able to get phones in jail.
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said that the Government had a lot of explaining to do.
"What we know is they've been found in one of the most secure prisons in this state and they are owned, apparently, by two of the state's most notorious rapists," he said.
"When courts send serial rapists like the Skaf brothers to jail . . . there is meant to be punishment. The public does not expect them to have access to mobile phones."
The Government hopes to reduce the problems with mobile phone smuggling by creating jamming systems at its jails.
Mr Robertson said he hoped to receive approval from the Federal Government to trial a system at Lithgow jail. He also said the system that allows siblings to stay in the same cells was also being reviewed.
Southwest region corrective services assistant commissioner John Dunthorne said the Skafs were together because: "It's very hard to place any Skaf in any jail and certainly not with any other inmate. Nobody wants a bar of them."
