A drug addict has been granted bail and ordered to live with a convicted heroin trafficker while he undergoes an assessment for residential rehabilitation.
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The 35-year-old Canberra man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his victim, applied for bail last week after pleading guilty to several domestic violence charges.
His crimes included non-consensual distribution of intimate images, colloquially known as "revenge porn", which involved him sending a picture of his partner performing a sex act.
The recipient of his message, sent in March, was his partner's underage brother.
The offender's main reason for seeking bail was a desire to attend residential rehabilitation and address a methamphetamine addiction that played a major part in his offending.
His lawyer, Zac McBride, told the ACT Supreme Court the process of assessing the man for a rehabilitation program could not begin while the 35-year-old remained in custody.
Mr McBride therefore asked Chief Justice Lucy McCallum to grant bail in order for him to undergo an assessment, proposing a Chisholm address occupied by a man called Paul.
Chief Justice McCallum adjourned the bail application to Tuesday because she wanted to hear evidence from Paul, who was revealed to be convicted heroin trafficker Paul Eric Lill.
When Lill took the stand, he said drugs had "caused nothing but misery" in his life and, now that he was on methadone daily, he had not had an issue with them for a few years.
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Lill, who received a full-time jail sentence in 2016 for a drug trafficking offence, told the court the 35-year-old was "in a bit of a bad patch at the moment and he needs a hand".
"I want to help him," Lill said, promising to alert police if the man "screws up" while on bail.
Mr McBride also called evidence from another person willing to accommodate his client.
That person, Florey woman Lisa Billinghurst, said the offender had helped with her with gardening for about five years and told the court he deserved "some sort of a chance".
Under cross-examination, she admitted she also had a criminal record and that her partner was currently subject to a suspended jail sentence for helping the offender breach an apprehended violence order.
The prosecution continued the opposition to bail it outlined when the application began last week, viewing neither proposed address as suitable for the offender.
It also provided the court with emails the offender had sent from behind bars, suggesting they showed the man intended to live with his partner rather than abide by bail conditions.
But Chief Justice McCallum released the man, saying it was "plain as a pikestaff" that police would be "all over" him and any breaches would likely result in bail being revoked.
The judge said while there were "obviously some red lights" in terms of the proposed accommodation and the offender's history, he had reached "a make or break moment".
She described his motivation to complete drug rehabilitation and regain custody of his children as "screaming off the page" of material before the court, adding that he had "presented a powerful and compelling case" for bail when he gave evidence last week.
Chief Justice McCallum accordingly granted the man bail to live with Lill while being assessed for a residential drug rehabilitation program at Canberra Recovery Hub.
She told the 35-year-old he would have to apply for a bail variation if he was accepted.
Chief Justice McCallum said drug addiction was an illness and acknowledged getting treatment was hard.
"If you feel yourself slipping, don't smoke a cone," she told the offender. "Call a doctor."
The judge also warned the man not to waste the opportunity because Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker would be looking closely at the results before sentencing him in February.
"if you muck it up between now and then, you're gone," she told him.
![The ACT Supreme Court, where the offender was granted bail. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong The ACT Supreme Court, where the offender was granted bail. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/37pQecASsxP5kZpQjfMrnhn/2a893885-94ad-4084-9551-8e35403e620c.jpg/r0_0_5600_3733_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
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