A barrister in custody on drug trafficking charges has avoided returning to the place he described a "hell on Earth" and a "prison within a prison" after securing bail on his third attempt.
Anthony Grant, 44, is charged with 13 offences including possessing and trafficking a commercial quantity of GHB and ketamine and with possessing methylamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, hallucinogens and Sildenafil pills.
He has also been charged over resisting a police direction to hand over PINs for electronic devices seized from his Melbourne home during a police search which resulted in his arrest in August.
The former office of public prosecutions solicitor appeared before the Supreme Court on Monday for his third attempt at bail, with lawyers persuading Justice Amanda Fox that any risk Grant posed could be managed.
"Trafficking in commercial quantity is a serious offence, however this is not the most serious," Justice Fox said as she approved his bail.
"It was not very well planned or sophisticated with bottles of butanediol not very well hidden."
Defence barrister David Hallowes argued Grant's experience in prison had been onerous given it was his first time and he was under protection as an officer of the law.
Grant was remanded on August 10 to the Melbourne Metropolitan Assessment Prison, a place he described as "hell on Earth" spending 23 hours inside a cell before he was transferred to Hopkins Correctional Centre, which he described as a "prison within a prison", Mr Hallowes told the court.
"For someone who has never been in custody before, they are harsh conditions," he said.
Any term of imprisonment could end up being shorter than the estimated two years it would take for Grant's case to move from committal to a potential trial, his barrister said.
"Whether he is found guilty, the nature and quantity of drugs - we're not talking tonnes - for someone who has never been convicted, it could be that a sentence is comfortably less than two years," Mr Hallowes said.
The prosecutor argued police were still combing through CCTV and forensics while seeking access to Grant's electronic devices, after he refused to hand over PINs, citing professional privilege.
Grant's partner and co-accused Atousa Amouzegar Haghighi is also facing drug trafficking charges and was bailed previously.
