AN internal review will be launched by the Department of Corrective Services after a prisoner serving a three-year sentence breached a violence restraining order (VRO) from behind bars.
The breach was revealed in Mandurah Magistrates Court on May 3.
This prisoner was on remand at Acacia Prison on December 8, last year, for serious violent offences he committed against a former partner, when he called a second person protected by the order.
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READ NOWA Department of Corrections spokesman said the incident was isolated and was of serious concern.
“Under the management of the VRO it should not have a happened,” they said.
“The matter is now subject to an internal review.”
The prisoner was served the VRO on October 29 and told he was not allowed to contact the protected person – a minor – in any way.
However, the prison failed to remove the protected person from the prisoner’s approved callers list.
The court was told on May 3 it was the eighth time the prisoner had breached a VRO.
The first seven times were in relation to an order protecting the victim of his violent offending.
The prisoner was sentenced in December last year to three years in prison backdated to the previous May.
Magistrate Leanne Atkins told the man he “should know better”.
As it was a different offence to the seven previous VRO breaches and not aggravated, Magistrate Atkins chose not to increase his time in prison.
She sentenced him to three months to be served alongside his current sentence.