Brenden Abbott - Prison Escapes

Prison Escapes

Brenden James Abbott escaped from jail twice, and he also fled from police in 1986 during questioning at Nollamara Police Station. Unlike crimes Abbott was previously a party to, the escape from Sir David Longland Prison at Wacol in November 1997 utilized actual force rather than an implied threat of force. In that instance Brendon Berichon, a young former SDL inmate, fired warning shots overhead from the outside of the fence. The offenders alleged this occurred in panic, when the three escapees' intended surreptitious escape plan went awry. Sir David Longlands Prison was also known as "the Killing Fields," and was later decommissioned by the Queensland government.

On 24 November 1989, the Fremantle Prison escape occurred that earned Abbott his lifelong notoriety as a criminal genius, and ultimately led to his permanent and erroneous branding as "The Postcard Bandit." In the escape, Abbott and another inmate jumped from the roof over the high limestone prison walls, in uniforms similar to guards,' which Abbott had made in the prison tailorshop.

Fremantle Prison, built in the 1850s originally as an immigration holding centre, had a long history of escapes which feature in the heritage listed site's tours. Fremantle Prison, like Sir David Longland Prison, was also decommissioned by the government due to substandard conditions in the years following Abbott's escape. Both prisons were notorious for their severe and outdated conditions, and inmates' bloody and brutal existence. Nollamara police officers featured in the 2003 Western Australian Kennedy Royal Commission into Police Corruption, when former detainees detailed allegations of physical torture during questioning.(Kennedy Royal Commission Final Report, 2003, Chapter 3 - Operation Least Said, p. 153)