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

Disfigured foot WAG Arabella Del Busso has been called out for wildly exaggerating her account of her alleged prison hell, with prison authorities issuing a public denial of her disturbing claims about how she has been treated behind bars.

The former reality TV star claimed in court documents that she was threatened with a knife by another female inmate, is regularly robbed by inmates and has been subjected to multiple invasive searches by prison officers.

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

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

The governor of Australia’s largest women’s prison, Dillwynia Correctional Centre, read the TheWSTNews Australia report and objected to Del Busso’s portrayal of prison practices.

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

And even if inmate visits are carried out sporadically, they do not go that far.

Del Busso had also claimed in documents produced in court that she had been threatened by an inmate with a prison knife or ‘shiv’ and ‘stood over’ and deprived of food.

However, the prison has not received any reports or complaints about such activities.

In a strongly worded denial issued through the prison’s media unit, the prison also said Del Busso’s claims that she routinely had to shower or use the restroom in front of other inmates were untrue.

The statement said: ‘Correctional Services NSW routinely conduct 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 about taking a shower in front of the inmates are not factual. Dillwynia Correctional Center has individual cubicles for inmates to shower.

‘Inmates do not use the toilet in the presence of others, except during urinalysis, and those sharing a two-person cell can use a toilet in the cell after evening lock-up.

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

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

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

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

Court facts said Del Busso told customers the EFTPOS machine was not working and asked them to pay in cash – then deposited the money into her own accounts.

In court, Judge Pickering rejected Del Busso’s claims that she had suffered “extra-curial punishment” in the form of excessive media coverage of her case.

“Being right about it, she has pursued it,” Judge Pickering said. ‘She put herself on a reality show. She put herself on national television.

‘Nobody forced her to go to SAS.

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

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

“There were also aspects of dishonesty in the Josh Reynolds case.”

When Del Busso appeared on TV show SAS in 2020, she slammed viewers by trying to downplay the NRL player’s fake pregnancies and miscarriages, calling her actions a ‘little white lie’.

Del Busso told the show in a piece to camera: ‘I’ve told a lie, but you know, the way I see it, a little white lie here or there isn’t going to hurt anybody.

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

HER PRISON LETTER

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

She said: ‘I was … threatened to be stabbed with a shudder’ (sic). It is a reference to a ‘shiv’, prison slang for a prison-made knife or blade made of metal or plastic.

She also described weekly strip searches as ‘traumatizing’.

“The strip searches … have not only been traumatizing, but have made me feel violated due to having to remove my clothes in front of two officers,” Del Busso wrote.

‘One stands in front of you and another behind you, then you have to lift your bra and show your breasts.

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

She had spent three-and-a-half weeks in the tough Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre, where she said she had a ‘very trusted role’ as a sweeper.

But her comfortable life in 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 it has not only made me feel uncomfortable having to shower, use the toilet and undress in front of them,” she wrote.

Del Busso told a friend and a forensic psychologist that ‘the prisoners would steal her food’ and that she is regularly ‘subjected to buyouts (and) if she does not comply, she has been threatened with violence’.

She said since she was locked up eight weeks ago, she has endured the degrading reality of sharing a small cell with other female criminals.

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