An inmate at Christchurch Men's Prison has been charged with bribing a prison guard to smuggle contraband into prison.
By Sam Sherwood of RNZ
The man appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday before Judge Quentin Hix.
He faced three charges of corruptly giving a bribe to the guard between December 2023 and January 2024. Court documents alleged on two occasions the man gave the guard $1000 to smuggle contraband into the prison, on the third occasion he was accused of giving him $500.
The man's lawyer, Ethan Huda, said he pleaded not guilty to the charges and elected trial by jury. He requested interim name suppression.
Judge Hix granted interim name suppression. The man will appear in court again in September.
The prison guard was also before the courts and had interim name suppression.
Christchurch Men's Prison general manager Joanne Harrex earlier said that in March last year police were advised and a staff member became the subject of an employment process after a detector dog team located contraband on a staff member.
"Our staff work in challenging environments to keep our communities safe and help people make positive changes to their lives. We recognise that given the nature of our work, we must uphold the highest standard of conduct.
"The overwhelming majority of our people act with integrity, honesty and professionalism and those who don't place their colleagues' safety at risk, damage trust in their profession and undermine the integrity of the prison system.
"They inevitably get found out.
"When we receive any information suggesting staff are not meeting our standards, we investigate and take the necessary action, including referring information to police if appropriate."
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