Great Escapes (from NSW prisons) - Number 1

R v Millar (unreported, NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, 25/5/1998)

This is by far and away the best escape that I know of from a NSW prison.

Here are the facts from the judgment itself:

“On 28 August 1996 the applicant was working as a sweeper in the electronic shop at the Bathurst Correctional Centre. He emptied two cartons containing electronic components which were on a pallet together with other cartons. He cut the adjoining sides of each carton and secreted himself inside the two cartons. The pallet was loaded onto a truck and driven to a storage building outside the main prison complex from where he completed his escape.”

With all the security of a gaol, all the barriers and protections, all the prison wardens and gaolers, the fact that this man snuck out in a cardboard box is, in my view, quite extraordinary. The judge, to say the least, was shocked:

“How a prisoner serving such a lengthy sentence could escape undetected from the Bathurst Correctional Centre in such a simplistic fashion beggars belief. Be that as it may, this was his achievement.”

And now this achievement is his as well: Number 1 on my list of top 5 escapes from NSW prisons.