A corrective services officer who misled the NSW corruption watchdog about the bashing of an inmate faces his own stint in custody after admitting he lied.
In 2017, Brian McMurtrie gave evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption about an incident at Lithgow Correctional Centre in February 2014, when another prison officer, Terrence Walker, assaulted an inmate.
The 64-year-old was charged with misconduct and lying twice about his part in covering up the assault as part of a pattern ICAC described as pointing to systemic issues of corruption and misreporting.
At the time, he worked as an intelligence manager at the prison.
Four corrective officers including Walker entered the cell and assaulted the inmate having been told by the prison's general manager, John O'Shea, to "sort it out" after O'Shea and the inmate had exchanged "harsh words".
According to court documents, McMurtrie filed paperwork detailing that a quantity of the drug suboxone was found in the inmate's cell, which ICAC later found to be concocted because McMurtrie - who was not involved in the assault itself - suggested that Walker needed a reason to justify entering the cell.
McMurtrie later told a senior officer that the drug allegation was "third hand" information and "was not expected to be valid".
Three other officers - Simon Graf, Elliott Duncan and Stephen Taylor - were also found by ICAC to have participated in the cover-up.
McMurtrie's evidence to the corruption watchdog was found to be knowingly false after he maintained his report was correct regarding the drug allegations and that he had communicated this to his superiors at the prison.
In hearings in 2018, he admitted fabricating the information.
Graf sat in the public gallery with his wife at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Thursday, when he was convicted but received no further penalty after pleading guilty to two counts of giving false or misleading evidence to ICAC.
But Judge Craig Everson said McMurtrie's offences required an appropriate sentence, which would be a form of imprisonment.
A penalty was needed that showed the public "truth must be paramount" when giving evidence, he said.
Lying to a public inquiry such as from ICAC was a "matter that strikes squarely at the heart of our system of justice", Judge Everson added.
He said he was inclined to impose an intensive corrections order - or supervised conditional release in the community - but he would await further submissions.
A large crowd of serving corrective officers attended the court to support McMurtrie and Graf, and cheered loudly when the latter left the courtroom.
McMurtrie will be sentenced in March and remains on bail.
Walker was sentenced in November 2023 to two years and four months in prison, with a non-parole period of 14 months.
