[Artemis.the.Hunter]

Escape latest crisis for shambolic system
By Tim Clarke
March 31, 2005
From: AAP
IN 1967, at the age of 10, Brian William Edwards was caught stealing a toy gun and holster from a toy shop in his home town of Dowerin in country Western Australia.

Some 13 years later, Edwards was sitting on death row in Fremantle prison after his lifelong fascination with firearms ended in the cold-blooded murders of childhood sweethearts Stephen Cavey and Susan Mills.
He shot them dead on November 18, 1979, after escaping from Bunbury Regional Prison for the second time.

Edwards was sentenced to death for killing the young couple but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole.

But after more than 25 years behind bars, Edwards decided this week he had had enough of prison life and walked out Karnet Prison Farm.

He had been moved to the minimum-security prison six months earlier, with the approval of the state government.

WA's justice system is already in crisis after a year of embarrassing revelations and incidents, but the ease with which one of the state's most dangerous prisoners escaped has increased the pressure.

The system hurtled to national attention last June when nine prisoners fled holding cells at Perth's Supreme Court building.

The prisoners were eventually recaptured, and WA Premier Geoff Gallop went on to secure a second term in office in February, replacing former justice minister Michelle Roberts with Cabinet newcomer John D'Orazio.

But since taking on the portfolio three weeks ago, Mr D'Orazio has had a very rough ride.

He's had to answer questions about four jailbreaks, a hostage situation that led to the alleged rape of a female prison tutor, and revelations that prisoners were getting drunk and others were accessing justice department databases.

WA's justice crisis began on March 11 with the escape of Paul David Cross, an armed robber serving an indefinite jail term for a string of crimes during two previous escapes.

Like Edwards, Cross had been moved to Karnet Prison Farm, from where he climbed to freedom through his cell window.

After police said they feared Cross would embark on a violent crime spree to finance his freedom, the Department of Justice confirmed his security classification had been downgraded in November.

That was only months after the Government had ordered greater emphasis be placed on escape risks when reclassifying inmates.

A week later, and with Cross still on the run, a security lapse at another regional prison allowed one of the state's most dangerous sex offenders to be left alone with a female art teacher.

Paul Stephen Keating, 45, grabbed the Bunbury Prison tutor in a headlock, allegedly with a knife to her throat, before barricading himself and the woman in a cupboard.

During the six-hour ordeal that followed, Keating allegedly doused the woman with flammable solvent, threatened to set her on fire and repeatedly raped her.

Just today, WA Police charged Keating with 10 counts of aggravated sexual penetration and two counts of aggravated indecent assault following the incident at Bunbury Regional Prison on March 16.

He was has also been charged with deprivation of liberty, assault occasioning bodily harm and four counts of making threats to kill.

The fact he was a notorious sex criminal who had twice before sexually assaulted female prison staff only fuelled the barrage of questions about how the situation was allowed to occur.

Media attention had just switched back to Cross, 45, who was taken back into custody nine days after escaping – allegedly in possession of a stolen sawn-off shotgun – when teenage fraudster and car thief Michael Leigh Moir vanished from Bunbury Prison.

When yet another prisoner, burglar Matthew Wayne Winmar, 19, strolled out of Wooroloo Prison Farm and made his getaway in a prison officer's car in the early hours of Easter Monday, the Government had a full-blown crisis on its hands.

Then Edwards, a double murderer transferred to the same prison that once housed businessman Alan Bond, vanished.

Questions about how he got out of the minimum security facility were rapidly followed by those about how he came to be there in the first place.

The answers from the Department of Justice implicated not only the supplanted justice minister, but also the attorney-general and the premier himself.

Last August the WA parole board, including a former Supreme Court judge, a former Greens WA senator, Director General of the Department of Justice Alan Piper, and a police inspector recommended Edwards for a pre-release program.

However, the final say rested with the Government's executive council, attended by WA's most senior politicians.

In 1980, a sentencing judge said Edwards should never be considered for release, but Attorney-General Jim McGinty, Ms Roberts and Dr Gallop decided differently.

Six months later, and with the public clamouring for tougher treatment of hardened criminals, Edwards left Karnet and disappeared into the surrounding Keysbrook forest.

The reaction was swift, with 14 other WA lifers speedily transferred out of minimum security to more-secure jails and the Government pledging an extra $7 million to beef up security at two prison farms.

Mr D'Orazio is pinning his immediate political credibility on an inquiry into the prison system he says will have whatever powers it requires to find answers.

But the one answer everyone is seeking will be extremely difficult to provide.

Where is Brian William Edwards?

wow... what a great state to live in