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I was arrested for armed robbery October 13, 1969. I
escaped from the Sydney Court of Criminal Appeal in June
1970 but was recaptured shortly afterwards. I received
10-years imprisonment for the armed robberies and
another 6 months cumulative to that sentence for the
escape. I commenced my ten and a half-year sentence
inside the NSW prison system as a first-timer and a
security risk. November 7, 1970 I escaped from the Long
Bay State Penitentiary in Sydney, Australia (as it was
then called) and was recaptured at Cabramatta, NSW, on
December 18, 1970. I was charged with escaping from
prison and 4 further counts of armed robbery committed
whilst being an escapee. I was returned to prison where
I was classified as an intractable prisoner and isolated
inside special security sections of the NSW prison
system
A series of unsuccessful escape attempts during 1971
culminated on December 8, 1971, when another intractable
prisoner, Mick Anderson, and I tried to escape from ‘The
Circle’ inside Parramatta Jail. We overpowered prison
guards and took their keys but the escape attempt was
thwarted when tower guards raised the alarm. We were
subdued and given 28 days solitary confinement. We were
transferred to the Intractable Section of Grafton Jail
the next morning.
From 1943 until 1976 Grafton Jail was the Alcatraz of
the NSW prison system. It was a place where NSW prison
authorities sent unruly or recalcitrant prisoners for
special treatment. That special treatment comprised
brutally physical repression at the hands of NSW prison
guards specifically employed to subjugate prisoners into
a state of submissiveness by the use of the baton, boot
and fist.
The special treatment for intractable prisoners began
with the “reception biff’ when the prisoner first
arrived at Grafton. The prisoner was stripped naked and
4 - 6 prison guards would baton-whip him into a state of
semi-consciousness before dragging him into a designated
cell. The floggings and brutality continued for the
duration the prisoner remained at Grafton. The
penological philosophy of physical repression and
coercion employed at Grafton Jail was loosely based upon
the disciplinary practices employed within military
prisons and although it served as a fearful and
intimidatory warning to the remainder of the NSW prison
population the concept was counter-productive to society
as a whole.
During my time as an intractable prisoner inside Grafton
Jail I observed and mentally documented the human result
of that regime. I observed non-violent offenders who
were sent to Grafton for breaches of prison discipline
and responded to that regime by becoming some of the
most violent individuals in this country after their
subsequent release from prison. Most continued with a
criminal career that resulted in some of the worst
crimes ever committed in Australia. (The 1973
Whiskey-Au-Go-Go firebombing that claimed 15 lives and
resulted in the conviction of James Finch and John
Stuart, both ex-Grafton alumni. Archie McCafferty,
served time in Grafton 1971-73, became Australia’s first
‘thrill-killer’ when he tried to emulate Charlie
Manson’s indiscriminate murder spree in the USA. Kevin
Crump, found guilty of the torture rape and murder of a
NSW grazier’s wife, was described as a ‘crazed animal
not fit to live in society’ by the trial judge when he
sentenced him to life and NTBR – never to be released.
Arthur Stanley ‘Neddy’ Smith, another ex-Grafton alumni
1970-73, received the green light from ex-Sydney
detective Roger Rogerson and other crooked NSW
detectives that allowed him to commit armed robbery and
violent crime with impunity during the 1980s. These
cases are indicative of the end result created and
moulded by the Grafton regime.
Between 1971 and 1975 I was transferred to Grafton as an
intractable prisoner on 4 separate occasions for
offences ranging from attempted escape to assaulting
prison guards.
In August 1973 I was sentenced to 18-years imprisonment
including further cumulative sentences for escaping from
Long Bay and armed robberies committed whilst an
escapee. I was also given an 8-year non-parole period on
that sentence to date from October 1969 when I was first
arrested. I eventually served 10 years 8 months of that
sentence but over 8 years I served in isolation and
solitary inside special sections of the State prison
system reserved for intractable prisoners.
In 1975 the NSW Government closed the Intractable
Section of Grafton Jail and replaced it with a high-tech
maximum-security unit called Katingal Special Security
Unit. Katingal was designed to sensory deprive prisoners
in conditions akin to living inside a submarine for
prolonged periods of time. Inside Katingal I began
writing to compensate for the isolation and boredom of
the place. I wrote two plays that received readings at
the 1977 and 1978 Australian playwrights Convention
respectively. I also wrote a series of poems that were
published in an anthology named after one of my works
called Walled Garden. It was also inside Katingal that I
established contact with a New Zealand reporter, Donna
Chisholm, who ignited my interest in journalism.
I became the only Australian prisoner to serve the
longest time inside Katingal. I was the third
intractable prisoner transferred from Grafton into
Katingal and I was the last man transferred out when the
NSW government was forced to close the place in June
1978.
I was transferred to Parramatta jail where I was
returned to mainstream population after 8 years confined
in supermax prisons reserved for intractable prisoners.
In December 1978 I was refused paroled because the NSW
Parole Board claimed I would be a danger to the
community if I was released from jail.
In 1979 the NSW Parole Board was forced to reconsider my
case and they came into Parramatta Jail to convene a
special hearing. The Parole Board recommended that I be
transferred to the Silverwater minimum-security prison
complex and be phased back into the community via Works
Release programs. My transfer to Silverwater was greeted
with opposition from the NSW Prison Officer’s
Association who refused to accept me into the jail and
black-banned me because I was an ex-Katingal prisoner.
I was returned to Parramatta Jail where other ex
intractable prisoners viewed my return as an impediment
to their own progression through the system. The entire
prison population refused to go to their cells for the
evening lockdown and the prison was put on riot alert
until Commissioner Tony Vinson and his subordinates came
to the prison to confer with a delegation of concerned
prisoners who threatened a full-scale riot unless
Silverwater prison guards dropped their black ban. The
impasse was negotiated when the delegation was informed
that the NSW Corrective Services Commission had already
commenced an action against the Prison Officers Union in
the NSW Industrial Commission and I would be transferred
to the minimum security section of Long Bay until the
matter was resolved by the Court. The Industrial
Commission eventually ordered the POA to drop their bans
and accept my transfer to Silverwater. I was returned to
Silverwater where I successfully completed the Works
Release programs. I was paroled on June 11, 1980.
In 1983 I was arrested and charged with murder on the
word of a criminal informer who was later granted
indemnity and immunity from prosecution. It was one of
the first major NSW criminal cases where indemnity and
immunity was used as a prosecution tool in the
Australian criminal justice system. Although I was
innocent I was kept in prison for nearly two years after
the NSW Parole Board revoked my parole on a presumption
of guilt. I was acquitted at trial in April 1985 and the
NSW Parole Board was forced to re parole me four days
later.
From 1985-1991 I lectured on a part-time basis at
various universities and secondary schools in Sydney. I
also liaised, researched and produced programs and
material for the Sydney media. I addressed forums at the
1989 National Conference on Violence and the 1988 Third
National Aids Conference. During the same period I also
ran a halfway for ex-prisoners (Glebe House) in the
Sydney suburb of Glebe.
Between 1986-1990 I ran a weekly three-hour radio
program ‘Inside Info’ on Sydney community based radio
station 2RSR-FM situated inside Sydney University where
I worked extensively with Tony Collins, Current Affairs
Producer for Triple J. I was later nominated to The
Board of Directors of the radio station.
In December 1990 I participated in a 2UE radio talkback
program with Kathryn Greiner, the wife of the then NSW
Premier. During the program I described how that
rewarding process for criminal informants had not only
resulted in grave travesties of justice but had also
proved to be counter-productive to society when the
informer had continued to commit further serious
offences under the mantle of protection as an
indemnified witness.
During that program I expanded upon the case of Raymond
John Denning who was a supergrass lifer and had laid
claim to the $250 000 reward for information concerning
the 1978 Hilton Bombing from his prison cell. At the
time the program went to air high ranking NSW Police
Officers were also preparing an application to the NSW
Rewards Evaluation Committee recommending that Denning
get the reward. Shortly after the 2UE Greiner/Matthews
radio talkback interview I was arrested and extradited
to Queensland on a trumped up $694 000 armoured van
robbery.
I was charged by Queensland Police with 2 counts of
attempted murder and robbery with violence, offences
that carried life sentences in Queensland. A senior NSW
detective (later investigated the 1993 Wood Royal
Commission) gave evidence that I had verbally confessed
to the crime. Another NSW criminal informant also gave
evidence that I was responsible for the armoured van
robbery.
Although I was innocent I remained incarcerated inside
the Queensland prison system until October 1991 when two
men, Gary Sullivan and William Orchard, were arrested
and charged with a series of armoured van robberies that
spanned the period 1985-1991 and included the crime I
had been wrongfully extradited and imprisoned for. Both
men pleaded guilty and I was immediately released from
prison on the order of a Queensland Supreme Court judge.
After my release from prison I pursued compensation from
both the NSW and Queensland governments for wrongful
imprisonment. That pursuit spanned the period 1992-1996
and also included a detailed submission outlining the
reasons and ramifications of my wrongful imprisonment to
the then Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating.
In August 1996 I was legally stymied in a catch-22
situation that allowed both governments to refuse my
compensation claim - the Queensland government claimed
their police force had acted in good faith based upon
the information received from NSW Police and NSW
criminal informants. The NSW government admitted that
their police force supplied information leading to my
arrest and extradition but that the NSW government was
not responsible for wrongfully imprisoning me because I
had been imprisoned inside a Queensland jail.
In September 1996, one month after my compensation
claims had been rebutted, I held up and robbed the
National Australia Bank in Eagle Street Brisbane. I was
captured a short time after the robbery and was
eventually sentenced to 10 years inside the Queensland
prison system. Sir James Killen came out of retirement
to represent my case to the court and during the
sentencing process Queensland District Court Judge, I
Wylie QC, set a legal precedent in which he stated that
the years of wrongful imprisonment I had suffered on two
occasions should be compensated in the form of a
discounted sentence when he imposed a 3 year non-parole
period on the 10 year sentence.
Although Queensland prison authorities disregarded the
precedent and sentencing recommendations of I Wylie QC (DCJ)
and forced me to serve 4 years I was eventually paroled
to NSW in October 2000 after it was revealed that my
father was dying from cancer. Eight days after my
release from prison my father died.
I have served a total of 17 years for armed robbery and
escapes but I have been wrongfully imprisoned on two
occasions in 1983 and 1991 for crimes I had not
committed. Those periods of wrongful imprisonment
totalling nearly 3 years out of my life could be termed
the collateral damage of being classed as a career
criminal.
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