Prison manager to face drugs trial

A Rimutaka Prison manager has been committed for trial on charges of selling drugs to inmates.

Jeffrey Mark Reid, 44, pleaded not guilty at a depositions hearing in Wellington District Court today to selling, conspiring to sell, and cultivating cannabis.

A unit manager in a high-security section of the Upper Hutt prison, Reid was arrested on June 4 and charged along with three prisoners and two women following a month-long cannabis investigation by the Corrections Department.

He was remanded on bail until early next year for a pre-trial hearing.

A second Rimutaka prison guard arrested this week as part of the same investigation also appeared in court today accused of supplying cannabis.

The 41-year-old, granted interim name suppression, was remanded on bail until December.

- NZPA