WA: Killer's escape the latest crisis for shambolic corrections

AAP General News (Australia)
04-01-2005
WA: Killer's escape the latest crisis for shambolic corrections

By Tim Clarke

PERTH, April 1 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 hometown of Dowerin in country Western Australia.

Some 13 years later, Edwards was sitting on death row in Fremantle prison, after his
life-long 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 originally sentenced to death for killing the young couple but that sentence
was later commuted to life imprisonment without parole.

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

He had been moved to the minimum security prison just 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 heaped on the pressure.

WA's justice system hurtled to national attention last June when nine prisoners managed
to flee 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 recently been moved to Karnet Prison Farm and 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 ordered greater emphasis be placed on escape
risks when re-classifying 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.

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 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?

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