"She pleaded guilty to the charge."
Samantha Alampi, a former through-care coordinator for the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), was sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Alice Springs for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The court heard that Alampi supported a 20-year-old man on parole in July 2024. The man had been convicted of manslaughter as a youth three years earlier and cannot be named for legal reasons.
Timeline of Events
- November 6, 2024: Alampi met with the parolee in Alice Springs. Within two hours, he removed his electronic monitoring device, leading authorities to revoke his parole.
- November 6 (continued): Alampi told a community corrections officer she did not know the parolee's whereabouts and suggested he may have traveled to Darwin.
- November 7: Alampi booked a room at the Diplomat Hotel and returned there with the parolee.
- November 8: Police found Alampi at the Salvation Army Hostel, packing the parolee's belongings. She told police she was doing so in a professional capacity because she understood he would be imprisoned.
- November 10: Police found Alampi and the parolee sleeping together in a room at the Mercure Resort.
The Sentence
Chief Justice Michael Grant sentenced Alampi to a 12-month intensive community correction order with five months of home detention. The sentence was reduced from a starting point of 16 months due to her guilty plea.
The chief justice noted Alampi's remorse and rehabilitation prospects, and determined that returning to custodial imprisonment was not in the best interest of her or the community.