Ex-teacher jailed for drug imports
A once internationally-renowned teacher who became a "mature-age" escort provider in Malaysia has been jailed in Melbourne for importing "ice".
The "colourful career" in education of Karen Beresford, 61, was earlier revealed in the County Court, including the international reputation she earned at a college in South Australia.
Chief Judge Michael Rozenes heard that her dismissal from the college in 2000 later led to her work as an escort in Kuala Lumpur where she started using ice and became psychologically addicted to it.
On Friday morning, Chief Judge Rozenes said a psychologist's report on Beresford detailed the "traumatic setbacks" in her business and professional life after her dismissal from the college.
Beresford had been stopped at Melbourne airport in November, 2007, on arrival from Malaysia with 186.6 grams of pure methamphetamine – with an estimated street value of between $52,800 and $93,300 – in two containers of hair product.
Prosecutor Kristie Eales told the court in a summary that when an investigator unscrewed one bottle of conditioner he asked Beresford if it was thick and she replied: ‘‘Yeah. It’s for treated hair’’ and pointed to her hair.
Ms Eales said when the bottles were re-X-rayed ‘‘concealments’’ were detected which later, after a forensic deconstruction, revealed the drugs.
A warrant for her arrest was issued on February 8, 2010, when she failed to appear. She was taken into custody in October last year when stopped trying to leave Australia for Malaysia with a passport in her maiden name.
In his sentencing remarks, Chief Judge Rozenes said Beresford, at 61, had no prior convictions and had made a "worthwhile contribution to the community through hard work and endeavour".
He recounted that the main thrust of a plea in mitigation was that at the time of the offence she was "suffering from a mental health condition which compromised your thinking and thus rendered you less morally culpable for the offence which in turn should lead to some moderation in sentence".
A consulting clinical and forensic psychologist reported that Beresford smoked crystal methylamphetamine “in conjunction with working as a sex worker” for about two years before her arrest.
When asked by the judge how her mental health might be relevant to the offending, the psychologist, Jeffrey Cummins, said while she understood her conduct was wrong, her “crystal methylamphetamine use would have inevitably compromised (her) ability to comprehensively appreciate the seriousness of (her) offending behaviour.”
Chief Judge Rozenes said her barrister told him there was no other logical explanation why a person of previous good character should suddenly, at the age of 61, embark on such a criminal enterprise and asked him to find that her moral culpability was reduced.
The judge said that as a matter of general principle, where the "expert evidence shows that the accused was aware of the nature and gravity of what she was doing and that it was wrong, the reduction in moral culpability cannot be more than 'somewhat reduced'."
Chief Judge Rozenes said his view was that the evidence relating to the effect of an "adjustment disorder" on Beresford at the time of the offending was "vague and highly speculative".
He told her: "There is no record of your state of mind at the time of the offending. As best as it can be reconstructed, it appears that you were in the process of successfully reinventing yourself as a mature age sex worker.
"It is not clear to me why you were using the drugs, how often you were doing so, what your finances were at the time and what, if any, compulsion there was in obtaining the drugs."
He did not accept there was sufficient evidence to form any precise view of her role, and as such "I propose to treat you as any other importer where there is no clear evidence of role".
"I do not treat you as a “mere” or “bare” courier acting at the behest of others," he said. "Nor do I attribute to you some notion of masterminding or ring leading.
"I propose to sentence you on the basis that you imported an amount of drugs some 93-times greater than the marketable quantity."
Chief Judge Rozenes added that a sentence for a drug importation "must signal to would-be drug traffickers that the potential financial rewards to be gained from such activities are neutralised by the risk of severe punishment".
He accepted Beresford's expressions of remorse were genuine and the evidence of character witnesses that her conduct was out of character.
In the ultimate sentence, he did not give her the benefit of any reduction in moral culpability because he was not satisfied there was "any nexus between your mental health at the time of your involvement in this offending of the kind that might call for such a reduction".
Beresford was jailed for a maximum of two years and nine months and ordered she be released after serving 14 months when she will have to be of good behaviour for a further 33 months.
She had pleaded guilty to a charge of importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug.