Adam Dion Prior: Jeep thief who crawled through dog door at Woodside boss Meg O’Neill’s City Beach home jailed

A repeat offender who crawled through the dog flap at the City Beach home of Woodside boss Meg O’Neill in a brazen night-time burglary with an accomplice has been handed more jail time. Adam Dion Prior, 32, was on parole after serving nine years behind bars when he and Ethan Shane Louis McKinley entered via the beachside mansion’s pet door as Ms O’Neill and her family slept on January 10 last year. A third offender, Kaelum Simmons, acted as the lookout. The pair stole the keys of a Maserati Ghibli and a Jeep Cherokee, which belonged to Ms O’Neill’s partner, Vicky Hayes. Prior drove away in the $66,000 Jeep, which he soon wrote off in a chase with police in Victoria Park. Officers then found the $170,000 sports car, driven by McKinley with Simmons riding along as his passenger, abandoned on Kwinana Freeway in Baldivis not long after. Prior was sentenced in the District Court of WA on Thursday, with prosecutor Mimi Yeung saying there was an element of pre-meditation, given the men came prepared with face coverings. Judge Charlotte Wallace was told Prior had been released from prison in November and relapsed into drug use during the Christmas period when he unwittingly inhaled the illegal hallucinogenic DMT using a relative’s vape. Such residential break-ins undermined the community’s sense of safety and security that someone should enjoy in the sanctity of their home, Judge Wallace said. She sentenced Prior to two years’ imprisonment, with eligibility for parole after serving half. Judge Wallace gave him the full 25 per cent sentence discount for pleading guilty, describing his personal circumstances in the lead-up to the offending, including a death in his family, as “the perfect storm”. She said the father-of-two had a deprived and dysfunctional upbringing and took drugs as a maladaptive coping mechanism — sometimes suffering paranoia and delusions from using meth. That substance abuse was interrelated with his complex psychological conditions, which included ADHD, anxiety disorder and PTSD. Judge Wallace said Prior had also been treated by prison guards in an “utterly abhorrent way”, adding she would not disclose the details in open court. Prior had also been previously assaulted by police, so it was to his credit he remained calm the last time he was arrested, she said. Judge Wallace also accepted he had genuine remorse and was committed to turning his life around. Almost two weeks prior to the break-in, McKinley and a co-offender broke into a Bayswater house where they stole $6000 worth of luxury items as well as the owner’s Audi sedan. McKinley — who stopped with the stolen Maserati to take photos of himself with other so-called eshays that were uploaded to social media — was jailed in April for four years, three months. He was made eligible for parole after serving two years and three months. Simmons was jailed for three years, with parole eligibility after 18 months.