Wayne Gregory Astill was jailed in March for a maximum of 23 years after he was convicted of 34 offences committed against 13 women at Dillwynia Correctional Centre near Windsor between 2014 and 2019.
Former prison guard Wayne Astill pictured outside court in August 2022.AAP
Astill would offer the women – one of whom was pregnant – favours such as phone calls to their loved ones or longer visits with their family,before telling them they owed him a favour and demanding they perform sex acts.
One woman accepted an offer to use Astill’s phone to call her partner,before he pushed her onto his office desk and sexually assaulted her. When the woman told him he would pay for what he had done,he said he was a former police officer and was affiliated with a motorcycle gang.
A Special Commission of Inquiry is examining whether management or other employees at Dillwynia were aware of Astill’s behaviour and,if they were,why it was not reported.
In an opening statement on Thursday,senior counsel assisting David Lloyd SC said Astill’s offending was “brazen and shameless”,but he was not sanctioned until police arrested and charged him in February 2019. He was suspended two days later,and his employment was terminated in 2022 after he was convicted.
Lloyd said the commission would hear evidence that Astill was found in a woman’s cell in October 2018 with the woman mouthing “help”. The officer who found her asked:“What the f--- do you think you’re doing Wayne?”
A separate inmate made a complaint about Astill in 2017,but a copy of the complaint was given to him and he showed it to her,causing her to apologise. He later threw out some of her mail in retaliation.
The inquiry heard another woman was so terrified of Astill that she asked a female staff member to lock her in a store room to hide from him when he called her to a meeting.
Lloyd said Astill bragged to a male staff member about having sexual contact with numerous women at Dillwynia,but claimed it was consensual.
“A key issue to be explored at this public hearing is the extent to which Corrective Services knew about Astill’s offending,and why no action was taken to address his abuse of the women who were inmates,” Lloyd said.
Dillwynia Correctional Centre.Janie Barrett
“Life in jail is not easy,and nor is it intended to be ... but inmates are entitled to be detained in an environment where they are not exposed to criminal offending by those in positions of authority.”
Astill was formerly a detective senior constable in NSW Police,leaving his role in 1996 to become a security officer at the Downing Centre court complex in Sydney. He joined Corrective Services in 1999.
Lloyd said Astill’s NSW District Court trial heard evidence that he repeatedly stood at one woman’s cell window and told her to expose her breasts,kissed one woman on the lips in a public reception area,and assaulted another woman in full view of others by running his hand between her legs and touching her genitals.
He also approached a woman while she was on her knees cleaning,put his crotch near her face and said,“that’s where I like you”. Astill carried out some of his assaults in an office with cardboard-covered windows so no one could see inside,the inquiry was told,and none of his actions were caught on CCTV.
He was convicted last year of five counts of aggravated sexual assault,14 counts of aggravated indecent assault,three counts of an aggravated act of indecency,and 12 counts of misconduct in public office. A judge imposed a non-parole period of 15 years and four months,and he will be eligible for parole in December 2037.
The inquiry is expected to hear from 45 witnesses,including correctional officers and inmates,before it reports in December.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights..