Arabella Del Busso made headlines with an anguished handwritten letter about her hellish life behind bars. Now furious prison bosses reveal the TRUTH

Disgraced footy WAG Arabella Del Busso has been called out for wildly overblowing her account of her alleged prison hell, with jail authorities issuing a public denial about her disturbing claims about how she’s been treated behind bars. 

The former reality TV star claimed in court documents that she was threatened with a knife by another female prisoner, is regularly robbed by inmates and has endured multiple invasive strip searches by prison guards.

Del Busso also detailed various humiliations she had been subjected to behind bars including how she had to shower, change and go to the toilet in front of other female prisoners.

But Del Busso – who was once caught out for faking pregnancies to ex-NRL star Josh Reynolds – appears to have exaggerated her account of prison life. 

The governor of Australia’s largest female prison, Dillwynia Correctional Centre, read Daily Mail Australia’s report and objected to Del Busso’s portrayal of jail practices. 

A Corrective Services NSW insider said that Del Busso’s graphic description of having ‘to spread your bum cheeks’ during a strip search was not true. 

And while strip searches are conducted after inmate visits, they do not go that far.

Del Busso had also claimed in documents tendered in court that she had been threatened by an inmate with a jail-made knife or ‘shiv’ and ‘stood over’ and robbed of food.

However, the jail has received no reports or complaints about any such activity. 

In a sternly worded denial issued via the prison’s media unit, the jail also said Del Busso’s claims that she routinely had to shower or use the toilet in front of other inmates was untrue.

The statement said: ‘Corrective Services NSW routinely conducts searches on inmates to protect the safety and security of the prison community.

‘There are strict protocols around strip-searches and female inmates are always searched by female correctional officers.

‘The inmate’s claims of showering in front of inmates are not factual. Dillwynia Correctional Centre has individual cubicles for inmate’s showering.

‘Inmates do not use the toilet in the presence of anyone else, except during urine analysis, and those sharing a two-person cell may use a toilet within the cell after evening lock-in.

‘CSNSW has formal processes for inmates to raise concerns. CSNSW will examine the issues raised by the inmate.’

Del Busso’s jail sentence for stealing $52,350 from her medical company employer was reduced from 12 months to five months at a court hearing last week. 

However her bid for immediate release on a corrections order to be served in the community was rejected by District Court Judge John Pickering. 

Del Busso was working as a receptionist at Rheumotology Specialist Care its practices at Kogarah, in Sydney’s south, and Randwick, in the city’s east between 2019 and 2020 at the time of the crimes. 

Court facts said Del Busso told clients the EFTPOS machine wasn’t working and asked them to pay in cash – and then deposited the money in her own accounts.

In court, Judge Pickering rejected Del Busso’s claims she had suffered ‘extracurial punishment’ by way of excessive media coverage of her case.

‘Being real about it, she’s pursued it,’ Judge Pickering said. ‘She put herself on a reality program. She put herself on national television. 

‘No-one forced her to go on SAS.

‘She engaged in an interview with 60 Minutes, chose to go on a reality show and has courted a public profile.’

His Honour also said the glowing character references also tendered to his court had ‘some unrealistic aspect of people indicating they were so shocked by aspects of her dishonesty in this matter. 

‘There were aspects of dishonesty in the Josh Reynolds matter too.’   

When Del Busso went on the TV show SAS in 2020, she gobsmacked viewers by attempting to downplay faking pregnancies and miscarriages to the NRL player and calling her actions a ‘little white lie’. 

Del Busso told the show in a piece to camera, ‘I have told a lie but you know, the way I see it, a little white lie here or there is not going to hurt anyone.

‘I’m sure we all do it. I’m not the only person in the whole of Australia who has told a white lie here or there.’

HER PRISON LETTER 

In her handwritten letter to the court, Del Busso spoke of an alarming encounter with a fellow prisoner.  

She said: ‘I was … threatened with being stabbed with a shive’ [sic]. That is a reference to a ‘shiv’, prison slang for a jail-made knife or blade fashioned from metal or plastic.

She also described weekly strip searches as ‘traumatising’.

‘The strip searches … have not only been traumatising but have made me feel violated due to having to remove my clothing in front of two officers,’ Del Busso wrote.

‘One stands in front of you and one other behind you, you are then required to lift up your bra and show your breasts.

‘Then either pull your underwear down to your knees or completely off, bend over spread your bum cheeks and lift one foot up at a time.’

She had spent three-and-a-half weeks at the tough female jail, the Silverwater Womens Correctional Centre, where she she said she had a ‘very trusted role’ as a sweeper.

But her comfortable life at that prison ended with her transfer to Dillwynia – where she said she now feels ‘uncomfortable’ performing private acts in front of other inmates. 

‘In such a confined space, not only has it made me feel uncomfortable due to having to shower, use the toilet and get undressed and dressed in front of them,’ she wrote. 

Del Busso told a friend and a forensic psychologist ‘inmates would steal her food’ and that she is regularly ‘stood over for buy-ups (and) if she does not comply she has been threatened with violence’. 

She said since her being locked up eight weeks ago she has endured the degrading reality of sharing a tiny cell with other female criminals .

‘It has made me feel unsafe as being a high profile status it comes with inmates knowing or finding out who I am.’