Kyla
10-08-2004, 04:04 AM
Rivkin free but is still 'suicidal'
Drew Warne-Smith
08oct04
RENE Rivkin is a free man. After 77 nights behind bars, one failed suicide bid, surgery to remove a brain tumour and a gall bladder, treatment for deep vein thrombosis and repeated bouts of depression, the fallen celebrity stockbroker yesterday left jail.
Having served his final 15 days in a single stretch at Sydney's Long Bay prison hospital, Rivkin was greeted by a cloudless spring day and a large media contingent when he emerged at 12.30pm.
Dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and gold-rimmed sunglasses, Rivkin swept out of Long Bay in a silver Toyota Landcruiser 4WD, a burly driver known only as "Tom" at the wheel. His wife Gayle, who routinely collected Rivkin after his weekends of periodic detention, was nowhere to be seen.
He was immediately dispatched to his new home, a historic $2 million apartment in Point Piper just 50m up the road from his former villa, Craig-y-mor, which his family recently sold for $16.5 million.
It is a far cry from June last year when he arrived at Silverwater jail in a $300,000 black Mercedes SL 500 convertible, wearing a full-length leather coat, and promising to cope "like Nelson Mandela".
Steve D'Silva, the director of periodic detention for Corrective Services, said Rivkin was calm and settled during his final days at Long Bay.
But Rivkin's lawyer, Greg Walsh, said his release had not been enough to raise his spirits. "Even though his sentence is behind him, he has nothing to look forward to. He is very teary, very upset, and intent on taking his own life," he said.
Drew Warne-Smith
08oct04
RENE Rivkin is a free man. After 77 nights behind bars, one failed suicide bid, surgery to remove a brain tumour and a gall bladder, treatment for deep vein thrombosis and repeated bouts of depression, the fallen celebrity stockbroker yesterday left jail.
Having served his final 15 days in a single stretch at Sydney's Long Bay prison hospital, Rivkin was greeted by a cloudless spring day and a large media contingent when he emerged at 12.30pm.
Dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and gold-rimmed sunglasses, Rivkin swept out of Long Bay in a silver Toyota Landcruiser 4WD, a burly driver known only as "Tom" at the wheel. His wife Gayle, who routinely collected Rivkin after his weekends of periodic detention, was nowhere to be seen.
He was immediately dispatched to his new home, a historic $2 million apartment in Point Piper just 50m up the road from his former villa, Craig-y-mor, which his family recently sold for $16.5 million.
It is a far cry from June last year when he arrived at Silverwater jail in a $300,000 black Mercedes SL 500 convertible, wearing a full-length leather coat, and promising to cope "like Nelson Mandela".
Steve D'Silva, the director of periodic detention for Corrective Services, said Rivkin was calm and settled during his final days at Long Bay.
But Rivkin's lawyer, Greg Walsh, said his release had not been enough to raise his spirits. "Even though his sentence is behind him, he has nothing to look forward to. He is very teary, very upset, and intent on taking his own life," he said.