All language subtitles for the.postcard.bandit.s01e01.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

(CLOCK TICKS)

(BREATHES HEAVILY)

(TENSE MUSIC)

(UP-TEMPO MUSIC)

Get on the ground!

(BELL RINGS)

Australia's most wanted criminal,

the notorious Postcard Bandit,
Brenden Abbott.

We don't want anyone dead today,
do we?

His robberies
have the mark of genius.

We've got
a Ned Kelly running around.

Taunting police
with postcards and holiday snaps.

Everybody likes to see

the coppers outfoxed.

Most crooks you deal with

are as dumb as a box of hammers.

Brenden was not stupid.

Brenden was a larrikin,

he was a cheeky bugger.

A master of disguise.

Abbott made a daring escape
from a Perth jail.

(SIREN WAILS)

That was a pretty smart escape.

Oh, it's genius.

(SIREN WAILS)

The hunt is continuing

for two extremely

dangerous prisoners.

Hitting banks in Perth,
South Australia,

New South Wales and Queensland.

I first met my dad

when he was on the run.

Police were watching the house.

He'd take the risk

of coming around,

got some balls to be doing that.

(DOG BARKS)

If the police see him,
they're gonna shoot him,

and that was my greatest fear.

One of Australia's most wanted men
has been arrested on the Gold Coast.

The man no jail
has been able to hold,

finally, back in custody.

Abbott is being held
in strict security

in solitary confinement.

Brenden Abbott has done
more solitary confinement

than any prisoner in Australia ever.

The nation's
longest serving prisoner

who hasn't committed murder.

28 years. It's shit.

I'm sick of playing these games.

Five-hour flight
for a 20-minute visit,

but at the same time,
it's all I've known.

Australia's most notorious
bank robber and prison escapee

has begun a last ditch bid
for freedom.

Do you think it's fair

that he's spent
more than some murderers?

It's been way too long.

He knew
what he was getting involved in.

You do the crime,
you serve the time.

What's been going on?

(THEME MUSIC)

Australia's
most notorious prison escapee

is plotting a fresh bid for freedom.

This time within the law.

In a legal challenge,

the now 63-year-old

is seeking to have his sentence
deemed unlawful.

My name's James Abbott...

Son of Brenden Abbott,

'Postcard Bandit',
as everyone refers to him.

Dad's over in Casuarina Prison
in Western Australia now,

couldn't be any further away
from Sydney if he tried.

I try to get over there
twice a year.

He's been in jail for way too long,

27, 28 years now straight.

I've never known him
out of prison basically.

(PHONE RINGS)

Oh, Dad's calling now.

You're about to receive a phone call

from a prisoner
at the Casuarina prison.

Your conversation will be recorded.

If you do not wish
to receive this call,

please hang up now.

Go ahead, please.

Hey.

Good. What's happening?

Turning up? For what?

Is that today?

(LAUGHTER)

Yeah, nah,
I'm pulling up shortly actually.

My brother Brenden
has well and truly served his time.

Brenden needs to get out of jail

and he needs to spend time
with his own son.

I kind of
do beat myself up a bit now

thinking like
how many years I wasted

not going to visit Dad.

James is desperate

to have some sort of
a connection with his dad.

The authorities need to let it go.

It's been cruel, it's been inhumane,
and it's been unnecessary.

So, Dad's got a court case
coming up.

They've somehow managed to change
his earliest parole date now

from 2026 to 2028 or 2029.

I don't see
how they're allowed to just change

someone's earliest parole date
and add an extra three years to it.

His lawyers,

they're working on to say
that he's been unlawfully detained.

What we're hoping for is that

he's to be
basically released immediately.

Brenden had been involved in,

I guess you could call it
a black-market ring,

stealing electrical items

they would steal from warehouses,
load up trucks...

And there's a lot of people
who are happy to buy cheap goods.

Price rises will be hefty.

Electrical items and white goods
are all set to rise.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

Back in June, 1986,

I was a brand-new

probationary detective.

I think it was my second day

and a series of raids
had been planned

with the break and enter squad
targeting some individuals

who were doing high-end burglary.

The crooks were smashing open walls,

getting inside
and taking significant amounts

of high-end electrical stuff.

So, the warrants were executed
on this morning

and a number of people

were brought back
to Nollamara detective's office,

which was an old house
converted into an office.

I saw Brenden Abbott
when he came in.

He just looked like

a normal run-of-the-mill person.

Nothing odd about him

or anything like that.

A young detective, John,
was watching him.

My job that morning
was look after Abbott

while we interviewed the others.

Abbott's in a back room,
which was effectively a store room.

There were no cells in this place.

"Mate, would you like a cup of tea
or a coffee while you're waiting?"

And he said, "Yeah, I'd love one."

Walked down the corridor
into the kitchen...

And as I'm making this cup of tea,
there's this tremendous bang.

(DOOR BANGS)
(UPBEAT MUSIC)

Brenden's out the back door
and he was pretty quick.

He was gone
within a matter of seconds.

Over fences and just disappeared

into the back blocks of Nollamara.

So, we did a search around the area

and no sign of Brenden.

So, effectively,
that was his first escape.

It wasn't a good start

for a brand-new
probationary detective,

and it caused me a fair bit of grief
from the more senior people there.

We all felt a bit sorry for John.

He was only a very junior,
young detective.

Yeah.

Abbott was then on the run,

and that's when he started planning
the Belmont job.

Get on the ground!

Brenden Abbott was obviously

looking at
what his career was gonna be

and he decided he was going to be
a career criminal.

Could have been anything.

I actually quite liked him.

I probably shouldn't say that,

but he was a likeable
sort of character

and very intelligent.

Like any intelligent,
you know, knockabout bloke,

he decided that crime was gonna be

the best way forward
and the rewards were great.

The Commonwealth Bank, Belmont,

8:45, Friday morning,
two men brandishing guns.

They escaped
with more than $100,000.

These dramatic photos

come from the bank's security camera

as the robbers fled the scene.

In WA,

we were just beginning

to experience growth
in armed holdups.

You could have two or three a week.

Petrified bank employees
were held at gunpoint by the men.

One wielding a handgun,
the other a shotgun.

Yeah, I remember the Belmont

robbery particularly

because it happened to be

my birthday that day.

We got a call out to go out there.

We soon discovered

staff were pretty traumatised
by the way it occurred.

How does it feel

when you had a gun
pointed at your head?

You stupid bitch.

The Belmont robbery was the one

that really brought him
to everybody's notice.

Brenden Abbott opened a new era
to us as investigators

of what crooks, bank robbers
were going to do.

This was a real smart,

well-planned thing

where they got into the roof

and they hid there in the roof...

Until they realised

or until they could see

that the bank manager
had opened the vault.

Once it was open,

then they dropped down
through the roof.

On the ground!

Gave them an element of surprise.

Everyone on the ground!

The staff wouldn't have been
suspecting anything

until they came down
through the roof.

Stay there!

I don't want any heroes
pushing any buttons.

As it turned out
they had planned it quite well.

We don't want anyone dead today,
do we?

Up, up...

With me.

They were going to get
far more money

if they could get into a bank
and into the vault

before the bank had opened

than if they walked
in the front door

and did the usual style of stickup
that you would normally do.

Stay on the fucking ground!

Hurry up, big night, stay down!

Coming through the ceiling
was something new.

Stay down. Stay down.

Let's go!
Come on. Come on. Come on.

I hadn't come across that before,

and I don't think

too many of my colleagues
had at the time either.

Most crooks you deal with,
especially in that era...

They was dumb as a box of hammers.

Brenden was not stupid.

That was a fucking disaster.

What happened?

We get here,
we get here half an hour early.

The visit starts at 1:45.

They delayed us,

didn't get us out of here
until up there until about 2:00.

Then they call us up there.

Then I go sit in the waiting booth
waiting to see Dad.

I sat there for probably
20 odd minutes waiting,

and I ended up
walking back out of the door saying,

"What's going on?"

And the guard asked me, he goes,
"Are you ready to leave?"

I said, "He hasn't even
fucking walked out yet."

So, don't know what the deal is.

So, sitting there,
waiting, waiting, waiting,

and then by the time he comes in,

Dad comes in,

he's losing his fucking mind.

He goes,

"I've been sitting
in that waiting room

"for you to come."

He's been sitting there
waiting for me

to come the last 15 to 20 minutes,

but I've been sitting there
waiting for him too.

They haven't communicated.

So, by the time
Dad's come in for the visit,

I got maybe 15, 20 minutes
out of the whole hour.

So, fly all the way from Sydney
five-hour flight

for a fucking 15 or 20-minute visit.

Yeah, they do this
all the fucking time.

I don't understand what happens.

So, Dad's in a bad mood.

He is sick of this stuff happening
all the time.

What?

Yeah.

They've delayed us twice already.

Then moved us to non-contact

and then put us in a room

where they know
the speaker doesn't work.

The visits are getting cancelled,
left, right and so on.

So, it's like even for me now

to book a visit
to go see him in Perth,

I'm sitting there just thinking,
"Am I wasting money?"

And gives you anxiety
about driving there.

Alright, no worries.

I'll chat to you soon.

No worries, mate.
I'll chat to you soon.

See you, bye.

Doing your crimes,
you get obviously jail time

for doing the wrong thing,
but it's been way too long.

It's enough now.

For you to be released
out of prison,

they have to say

that you're no longer a threat
to society.

Recently,
I've seen some murderer got out,

has killed all these people.

You see there's other people
getting released

for other stuff they've done...

and they get less time
than what Dad has,

I don't understand how it works.

No idea.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

The Belmont robbery,

that woke everybody up.

To come through the ceiling...

On the ground!

..and get away
in such a brazen hold-up.

We have a problem here.

The hunt began.

Police immediately launched
a massive hunt for the robbers

and their getaway car,
a white Cordia Mitsubishi.

This helicopter was also called in
for a wide aerial search

of the metropolitan area.

Catch me if you can.

Brenden Abbott
had some type of relationship

with Jackie Lord at the time.

I was 15 when I first met Brenden,

and I remember meeting him
at a swimming pool.

He seemed almost shy,
but he was also mysterious.

But I was quite normal

when I met Brenden,

it wasn't like I was anything bad,

I was working,
I had in fact two jobs.

I wasn't a thief as such,
but I started to shoplift.

I suppose
it might've even been in competition

with what Brenden was doing.

We were soulmates,

but I had to make some choices,

otherwise I would've gone
the wrong way as well.

So, I decided
that I'd have to cut it from there.

They did have an off and on,

an up and down relationship
for many years...

After the Belmont robbery.

Jackie found out that Brenden
had been seeing somebody else.

She then contacted the police
and said

where they would be able
to find Brenden.

It was her tip-off

that let the authorities know

that Brenden Abbott
was a part of that robbery

and she did receive reward money.

I was furious.

How dare you do that to my brother?

I was pretty annoyed with her
for doing that.

I mean,
I know that he did the wrong thing,

but it was all over jealousy
as far as I was aware.

So, he had seen another woman
or something

and Jackie had got jealous
about that

and so she reported it
where Brenden was to the police.

Jackie Lord pointed us
towards Abbott.

He was in Port Headland
at the Walkabout Hotel.

We let the local detectives know,

they went out there,
but he was gone.

His vehicle was seen pulling
into the Port Headland airport.

We knew
Brenden Abbott was fairly cunning,

we thought maybe
he's coming back to Perth.

We got to the airport,

we made contact

with the Ansett security officer
out there.

We told him what was going on

and that we wanted to see
if Abbott was on this plane.

This is just a little mud map,
that's Ansett flight 347.

All the passengers got off.

He was the last one off

And immediately I recognised
it was Brenden Abbott.

He was looking around.

He was well aware
of his surroundings.

He made his way down
following the other passengers,

but he kept on putting his hand
inside his jacket,

which made me think
he probably was armed.

He was starting to walk faster,
so, I had to walk a lot faster,

and I was able to catch up with him.

Some people started yelling,
"Hey, he's got a gun."

And so, then I knew
that straight away

had to make a move.

We jumped on him.

We had to use a bit of force.

Oh, yeah,
we weren't messing around at all.

We had to do
what we had to do very quickly...

In typical Brenden Abbott style,

and when he did see his face...

He saw this graze on his eye
and he made a comment.

He said, "This is going to look good
in court tomorrow, isn't it, boys?"

(CHUCKLES)

Abbott with a huge bruise
on his face,

members of his family weeping.

I was very distressed
about the mark on his face

because it was very clear

that they've shoved his face
into the ground.

I was angry with the police
and how they did things.

And he said, "Diane,
they're just doing their job.

"They've got a job

"and their job is to catch a thief
and I'm the thief."

Brenden James Abbott, 25,
of no fixed address

faced a variety of serious charges
in the East Perth court today.

Abbott was jailed for 10 years
with no minimum term.

As Abbott left the court,

he turned to Mr Justice Smith
and said, "Thank you.

"You're a real gentleman."

I wasn't surprised by the sentence

because I think

bank robbery's up there with murder
in sentence time.

I think
when somebody goes to jail...

There's always that concern
that they could be beaten up,

raped, murdered.

Fremantle prison's a very old prison

and very archaic.

So, when he went to jail,

it is natural, I think,

for any family member
to be concerned

about where do we go from here,
you know?

Australia's most notorious
bank robber and prison escapee

has begun a last ditch bid
for freedom.

The so-called Postcard Bandit,

Brenden Abbott,

has spent three decades in jail.

The nation's longer serving prisoner

who hasn't committed murder.

His lawyer, Matthew Crowley, claims

he was essentially no longer liable
to serve any more time.

First thing I'll do with Dad,
probably go out and have dinner,

I probably won't want to sleep.

I'll just want to stay up
and keep talking.

I hope he gets out
really, really soon.

And I'm getting older as well too.

So, you know, be good
to have him around a little bit.

Yeah, I can see you.

I've never got to speak to Dad

or see Dad

without someone else listening

or someone else being present.

It's always monitored
all the time.

My camera's off, that's why.

Oh, yeah? Tell me about 'em.

Let's go.

Yeah, yeah.

What's your feeling
with the court case though?

You feel like it's going to...

What do you think?

What are you leaning towards?

It doesn't make any fucking sense.

Sometimes if he makes a remark

or says a certain thing,

they'll just shut the call down.

I've never known him to be out,
so it's normal to me.

So, when he gets out,
that's going to be really strange.

When I go visit Dad,

it's just like
hanging out with a friend,

just chilling out,
have a conversation,

just have a bit of a laugh.

The more I've gotten to get
to know him now and talk to him

and we can have
mature conversations now,

realise how similar we are.

Kind of scary though,

considering he's never been around

and how much
me and him are very alike.

G'day, g'day, g'day.

How you feeling
about getting this tattoo?

Oh, yeah.

I can't wait to show Dad later.

I think the postcard outline
is going to be,

the poster stamp's going to be
the funny thing for him.

It's like a little bank robber
with a money bag

and put a pair
of aviator sunglasses on as well

just to give it the look of Dad

and then look at the postcard
stamp outline around it.

What do you think
he's going to think

when he sees that?

He's going to think
I'm a fucking idiot.

(LAUGHTER)
But that's what it's about.

He'll love it.

As Mum always says to me, she goes,

she goes, "Even though
Dad hasn't been around,"

she goes, "you and him
are exactly the same as each other."

They walk the same too.

They walk the same,
smart-ass attitude.

What do you mean they walk the same?

They walk like on their tippy toes.

(LAUGHTER)

Expose me.

Feel like you're going to do
a lot of cooking as well.

Dad likes to cook, so do I.

So, I think it might be something
we'll do together as well.

What else does he like to do?

Rob banks.

(LAUGHS)

(PHONE RINGS)

It's Dad calling now actually.

You are about to receive
a phone call from a prisoner

at the Casuarina prison.

Your conversation will be recorded.

If you do not wish
to receive this call,

please hang up now.

Go ahead please.

Hey, mate.

Good. What's happening?

Any updates on the lawyers
or anything for this court thing?

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, that's why I don't
understand it, all good.

I'll chat to you
in a couple of hours.

No worries. I'll speak to ya then.
See you mate. Bye.

10-minute calls.

Whenever he rings,
before you know it, the call's over.

Brenden Abbott's problem is that
the offences he committed,

regardless of the fact
he didn't shoot anybody,

they were very violent offences.

That's the top of the scale.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

My first memories of Brenden Abbott

was at that time
I was on the armed robbery squad.

He'd escaped
from a suburban police station

and he was suspected of doing
a number of armed robberies,

particularly one in Belmont
where he came in through the roof.

On the ground!

He was charged at that stage
with the robbery at Belmont

to walk into a bank

and shove a loaded shotgun

into somebody's face and say,

"Give me your money
or you're going to die,"

he was going to be in jail
for a long, long time.

Anyone who's been
to Fremantle Prison,

now, when you go and see it
as a historical thing,

the conditions in there

were terrible.

Absolutely terrible,

locked up like that.

But let's not be too soft on them,

there's some
pretty terrible criminals in there.

People have murdered and raped
and done some terrible things.

So, do we have any sympathy?

No, but the reality is that

you put people in those conditions,

you're going to have to deal with
things like riots and escapes.

The full-scale riot

has broken out tonight
at Fremantle jail

and the century-old prison
is on fire.

There are reports that the rioters
have taken some hostages.

(SIREN WAILS)

Two of the prison guards
had had an altercation

with one of the prisoners.

The allegation was that they bashed
this particular prisoner

and that went around the prison
like wildfire.

(HELICOPTER WHIRS)

There was a whole group of prisoners
that resisted

and then attacked the prison guard.

135 inmates
took control of a cell block

and held five
prison officers hostage.

Locals and former inmate

blame inhumane conditions
in the jail

and today's heat for the riot.

You know, any opportunity
to get rid of those conditions,

either by burning it down,
they're going to take.

When the prison riot occurred,

I was one of the senior negotiators

in the police department
at that time.

When I first got here,
this place was all on fire.

We couldn't come out through there.

We walked around onto the hill
and looked down into the yard.

It was just absolute pandemonium.

There were five wardens
that had been taken hostages.

One of them
was fairly badly injured.

Abbott was one of the first ones
to get up on the roof over here,

the roof of the exercise yard.

Mainly they were acting as lookouts.

He was also one of the ones
with the group

that was surrounding the hostages.

I then start to negotiate with him
to see what it was they wanted.

The prison superintendent
said to me,

"Don't tell 'em you're a copper."

And I said,
"You've got to be joking.

"I said,
I've put half the bastards in here."

We negotiated

that we would exchange
cartons of cigarettes

and then they said
they wanted something to eat.

Well, they brought in

these big plastic dust bins
full of beans

and a big plastic dust bin
full of toast.

So, then for about
the next 20 minutes,

it was pretty silent in the yard

because they all had their beans
on toast.

Brenden was one of the rioters.

He'd argue against that,

but it was well known
he was one of them.

He was quite clearly
part of that core group.

He was always looking
for an opportunity.

I've no doubt, when he was climbing
on the roof of the exercise yard,

he was in a position to actually see

what the perimeters were
around the prison.

Brenden Abbott would've been looking
for opportunities to get out.

I think his planning
would've started

the day that they locked him up
back here after the riot finished.

Well, the aftermath of the riot

was all of the main protagonists

were all interviewed by the police,

and it turned into a massive trial.

The trial itself
went on for months and months.

I sat around the Supreme Court
for weeks waiting to give evidence,

and every morning,

Brenden Abbott
and all the rest of them

would be brought in...

And of course
the photographic evidence

and all of the exhibits
would be handed

to the various prisoners
to look at and everything.

They had
aerial photographs of the prison

and it was almost like
having a Google map.

Brenden Abbott
was ultimately charged

and convicted of those offences.

When Brenden got charged
for the riot

and they added the sentence

on top of
what he was already serving,

I was really surprised by that.

He was going to be in jail
for a long, long time,

which I think led
to his subsequent escape

later on down the track.

'Cause it was very meticulous
in what he did.

Given Brenden's cognitive ability,

he's mentally switched on.

I think if the system
had have picked that up earlier,

they could have changed
his direction dramatically.

My first memory growing up...

Brenden was obsessed
with knowing how things worked.

(MACHINES WHIRS)

Brenden never had any problems

with his schooling or anything,

and he was always a smart one.

He'd take things to pieces
to see how they worked

and put 'em back together.

I don't know how old he was
when I said to him one day,

I said, "When you start going out
with a female,"

I said,
"are you going to take her to pieces

"and try and put her back together?"

And he said, "Mum,"

and I said, "No."

I said, "Well,"

but there was nothing
that he couldn't take apart.

I remember when Brenden was 13,

my mum bought us
a boombox back then.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

And that night...

My mum walked in the bedroom

and he had the whole thing
pulled apart on the bed...

And put it back together again...

And it worked.

But that he enjoyed
doing that stuff.

So, he's always had
a very inquisitive mind

when it comes
to the operations of things.

(UP-TEMPO MUSIC)

Hey, how are ya?

Good. Good.

Oh, do you want to see it now
or you want to?

I'll give you a quick little look.

Fuck it. Whatever.
It's right in the ankle.

You'll have
a bit of a laugh out of this one.

Hold on,
I've got to drop the camera down.

One second.

So, Sammy's sister changed it
to a bank robber.

Just put the little postcards,

little postcards sticker
around the side too.

And then it's got
your aviator sunglasses,

and a little moustache that you had.

(LAUGHS)

Sammy.

Come say hello.

Hello, how are you?

May is the one
that did the tattoo for me today.

Yeah.

I had to look at
photo references of you

to get some inspiration.

I like your hair...

Show us the side, show us the back.

That's my head for sure.

Yeah, I was just thinking that.

(LAUGHTER)

No, I don't think so.

They cut it out.
Aw.

That sucks.
Can't even say bye.

No, they cut it out
'cause they came on the camera,

I think that's probably why.

That sucks.

It's my partner
talking to her on the camera

and it's not harming,
harming anyone at all.

It makes me angry
when stuff like this happens

actually frustrates me
and it plays in my mind for ages.

It just sucks
having a family member,

someone you care about...

someone else's telling you
what you can and can't do with them.

28 years, it's shit.

I'm sick of playing these games,
but at the same time,

it's all I've known...

that I'm just like,
it gets a bit frustrating.

But it is, what it is.

In Fremantle prison,

Brenden had got himself working
in the prison tailor shop.

He knew a number of things.

That there was an area
across the roof

that was very vulnerable,

so, anything he could do

to lessen the reaction
from the guards

to make them unsure
of who they were dealing with.

Working in the tailor shop
gave him access to making uniforms.

So, he obviously came up
with the idea,

let's make some uniforms

that appear like prison guards

that will give them

a moment of hesitation
for the guards

to get across the roof
and get to the wall.

If they had gone across there
in their prison greens,

they would've been shot.

The tailor shop
normally had a prison guard,

he was the tailor.

To make their escape,

they had to distract the overseer,

the tailor
who was in charge of them.

You're in a room
full of sewing machines,

making a lot of noise.

That covered the sound
of cutting through the bars.

And so, they had free run
while that was happening.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

Come on, hurry up.

Get moving, come on.

The guards hesitated,

gave them enough time
to scramble across

and over the wall.

And somehow
Brenden was able to retain

some of the civilian clothes

and they aided him
in his ultimate escape.

They left one behind
who fell down the gap...

But two got away.

Abbott and Reynolds.

And headed off
to 5.5 years of freedom.

That was a pretty smart escape.

It was one of the more,

I suppose, celebrated escapes,

if you could say that,
from Fremantle Prison.

James Abbott
and Aaron Raymond Reynolds

sneak out of a workshop,

climb onto a roof,
and leap 3m to freedom.

When Brenden
broke out of Fremantle prison,

my first thought

was the police will kill him.

If the police see him,
they're gonna shoot him.

And that was my greatest fear.

My greatest fear was that
somebody was gonna kill him.

If someone escapes from custody,

whether it be a prison
or from a police station,

there's a lot of effort
put into it to recover that person.

So, if someone like
Abbott was on the run,

then they'd be all stops
pulled out to try and recover.

Abbott, if he's confronted
at a scene of a robbery,

then he will shoot it out.

The guns are loaded
and he's prepared to use them.

They would say

he's highly dangerous
and would shoot if confronted,

so, don't confront him.

And that used to
really cause me a lot of grief

because I actually thought

that the police
were just saying that

maybe they were
telling the media that

because that would
justify them shooting him

when they caught him.

Eventually,

and even if it takes us
two months or two years,

he'll definitely come unstuck.

(DOOR KNOCKS)

Good morning. How are you?

Good, how are you?
Good, thanks.

Can I come in?
Yes, Come in.

Morning.
Morning.

How are we?
Yeah. Good, good.

How are you feeling?

Feeling alright.

Yeah.
Pretty nervous.

What time
did you guys get in last night?

Pretty late. I think we flew in...
Flight was delayed.

Flew in about 11:15, 12:00
I think it was.

Got to the hotel,

parked the car, came upstairs,
showered, straight to sleep.

Had about...

Probably had about four hours sleep.

But yeah.

How are you feeling, Sammy?

Um, excited.

Excited for James
and excited for him to get out.

I had a call with Dad
this morning beforehand,

so, he just gave me a slight rundown
of everything that's gone on.

So, he spoke
with the lawyers yesterday.

They said that if they get up

on one of the main matters
they're going for,

that'll be everything.

That'll be end of it, Dad will walk.

If not, then I have to appeal things
and go further.

So, at the moment,
it's set for two days,

potentially could go for three.

Ready?

Yep. Alright, let's go.

Let's go?
Yep.

A bit nervous today.

The anxiety's up there.

He's a cheeky bugger,

sending postcards to the coppers.

Thumbing his nose at the police.

But he wasn't.

The Postcard Bandit
was really a myth.

One of Australia's most wanted men

has been arrested on the Gold Coast.

He was too hard to hang onto.

It was a daring breakout.

They cut their prison bars

with diamond encrusted angel wire.

To escape
from a maximum-security prison twice

is the stuff that myths are made of.

(SIREN WAILS)

This latest incident

is an embarrassment
for the government.

Where is Brenden Abbott?

Police are now planning
a national task force to catch him.

You just can't be that lucky
for that long.

The man
no jail has been able to hold,

finally back in custody.

This 37-year-old will be an old man

before he ever sets foot
back in the community.

Abbott spent
the best part of ten years

in solitary confinement.

And now
that's a pretty extraordinary thing.

23 hours a day
locked down in your cell,

that would be enough
to drive anyone insane.

You've got him in maximum security.

Why are you doing this?

To me that was just
gutless of the authorities.

(ALARM BUZZES)

(PHONE RINGS)

Can you hear me, yeah?
Yeah. Yeah.

(CHUCKLES)

How do you get through that
to not be crazy?

The law.

You just got
to keep your mind occupied

or otherwise you'd go loopy.

This case is set to be complex.

If successful,

the serial fugitive
can walk out of prison

for the first time
in almost 30 years.

Do you think it's fair
that he's spent

more than some murderers?

He knew
what he was getting involved in.

You do the crime,
you serve the time.

He's getting older.

I don't know
how much longer I got with him.

Everybody's just waiting
for the decision

to come back from the judge.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

Captioned by AI-Media
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