All language subtitles for the.postcard.bandit.s01e02.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

WOMAN: Notorious Postcard Bandit
has launched a bid for freedom,

arguing he's served his time

and murderers
are getting lighter sentences.

A bit nervous today.

Ready?

Yep. Alright.

Should we go?
Yep.

Now, the Postcard Bandit
wants to be free,

launching an appeal against
his extraordinary

47-year prison term.

The anxiety's up there.

(THEME MUSIC)

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

I was a young police reporter

trying to find my next big story,

and I stumbled across

the story of Brenden Abbott.

It's just like talking
to another cop

when you interview him.

The first big feature
I did on Brenden Abbott

and in colour,
it's even more striking.

Yeah.

In 1989,

he was doing 16 years
at Fremantle Prison

for the Belmont robbery.

Don't want anyone dead today, do we?

Get on the ground.

And the Fremantle prison riot.

135 inmates
held five prison officers hostage.

He had a lot of years ahead of him

and he decided that
he really didn't want to do that.

So, he managed to get over the wall
with that prison and get out.

Brenden would've thought
that was his right

and his duty to escape.

After the escape,
Abbott and Reynolds fled WA.

We believed that Abbott
had gone over east

crossed the border and quite often,

it ceases then to be our problem
and that's how we treat it.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

I first became aware
of Brenden Abbott after he escaped,

when I was attached
to what was known then

as the Special Crime Squad

in the South Australian police.

To catch a crook,
you need to think like a crook,

and that often gives you
a bit of an avenue

to follow up as far
as investigation's concerned.

We knew he was very transient
and probably flying...

(TRAIN HOOTS)

..possibly using trains
or whatever.

In those 5.5,
six years I was on the run,

basically, I was just on a holiday.

I'll be in a nice four
or five-star hotel

and the following week
I'm laying in the swag

in the middle of the outback.

Be up at Cape York fishing one week,

and then I'm down
in Thredbo skiing the next.

I even went to Thailand
for a holiday

because I needed a bit of R and R,

the stress was killing me, you know.

I was using a false passport.

When I say a false passport,

it was actually someone legit

and I just took up their identity
to obtain the passport.

I probably should have gone
to Europe,

I should have gone
and not come back.

With Brenden living the high life
while he was on the run,

it certainly became frustrating.

He was enjoying being on the run

and keeping one over the coppers.

He was a cheeky fucker.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

When I did fly around

I'd be in first class
or business class,

you know, you dress the part,
wear a suit, tie, carry a briefcase

and everything,
and nobody questions you.

Nobody looks twice at you.

The money wasn't really an obstacle.

You know, I mean if I ran out of
money I'd just go rob a bank.

(CHUCKLES)

The security camera
at Westpac snapped this shot

during an armed hold-up on Friday.

Brenden Abbott
has thought to have committed

at least 37 robberies
in five states.

While he's been credited with some
that he may not have done,

I think there's definitely
others out there

that he hasn't been credited with.

Abbott had gone to ground.

The only time
they had any idea where he was,

was when a major bank robbery
would be committed,

and even then
they couldn't be sure it was him

because obviously,
there'd be disguises involved.

Police believe that reports on radio

and television
may be inspiring copycats.

The police in South Australia
at best theorise,

but at that stage,

I dunno that I had really

particularly any information
on where he was operating.

During that time,

there were robberies
being attributed in South Australia

and Queensland
and possibly New South Wales

where the same method
of operation was being used.

The same MO.

(RADIO CHATTER)

His MO, they believed

involved dropping
from the ceiling of banks,

not in every case,

but that became
a strong element of his MO,

the Drop In Bandit.

It was a brazen hold-up
in the heart of retail Adelaide.

It seemed to us

that he was zipping down
to South Australia

to get away, do the jobs there,

and then go somewhere else
where it was quiet,

try and keep us on our toes.

It didn't surprise me that
Abbott kept on doing bank hold-ups.

He probably thought,

"Well, people don't know me
in South Australia.

"It's easy to fly in, fly out."

I think they were slowly starting
to put a picture together

that Brenden Abbott was behind it

and that he was commuting
between the states.

The way I thought about it was that

Brenden Abbott needs to be
brought to justice.

Brenden James Abbott.

The notorious Postcard Bandit.

Postcard Bandit.

Postcard Bandit, Brenden Abbott.

It's the stuff that myths
are made of.

It's funny with Australians,
they love a larrikin.

The latter-day bush ranger...

Who makes Ned Kelly
look like a petty thief.

He's begun to earn folk hero status.

We don't like banks.
Banks are ripping everybody off.

Now, we've got someone who's taken
their money away from them,

being a Robin Hood
in some people's minds

and getting away with it

and cheekily sending postcards
to the coppers say,

"Catch me if you can."

Holiday-snapped mail to police.

Often sending them postcards.

With photos taken
during his life on the run.

It was absolutely irresistible
for the media.

How could you not run
with the story?

The bank robber taunting police
while he's on the run.

It was a fantastic yarn
for the media,

it was irresistible.

Cool, cunning and a likeable bloke.

Brenden Abbott
was suddenly a larrikin.

He was a cheeky bugger
sending postcards to the coppers

and getting away with it.

He's laughing at you, isn't he?

I would think so.

He was taunting the police

with these little postcards

all around the country,
but he wasn't.

The Postcard Bandit
was really a myth

and resulted
from some rolls of film

found in the back of a car

that Abbott and Reynolds had used
to escape from police.

They were being pursued
by a 79 Division car

and shots were fired
at the coppers involved.

That chase is where
the Postcard Bandit myth comes from.

The media have always said that
those photographs were sent to us.

They weren't.

They were located
in the stolen vehicle,

so, there was no...

There was no indication
they were meant for us.

The police had found
one of those disposable cameras

in the back of the car

and later went on
to develop the film

and there was Reynolds
standing outside

the Dwellingup Police Station.

That famous photo wasn't Abbott,
it was Reynolds.

It's taken by Abbott.

The media took it that

this was a postcard
and let's run with it.

And Abbott was always
in the public eye

while he was on the run
because of the so-called 'postcard'.

It was good for the media.

They were getting the headline

and we were getting
the information back.

The public have a view
of Brenden Abbott

as this rollicking, larrikin,

bank robber who kept
the coppers at bay,

was always one step ahead.

The reality is he's-he's a criminal

that ran riot for
a total of about seven years

and then spent most
of his life in jail.

(TENSE MUSIC)

When I was younger,

there'd be police
parked in the streets,

obviously watching the house.

He'd take the risk of coming around.

He'd just come through
the back of the house

and guess he'd come through

the back of another property
or stuff.

He'd come to the house and mum said
he'd just kind of keep it quiet,

'cause obviously
they'd be listening.

It's a risky thing on his behalf,

like, knowing the police
that are watching too.

So, he's got some balls
to be doing that

because I sure as hell wouldn't be
doing it that way.

I remember there was one year
for Christmas

we got this box delivered
to the house,

had Nintendo 64 on it,

all the controllers and pretty much
every single game you could buy.

So, this is the original Nintendo

that Dad had bought me
all those years ago,

so, I still have it.

I still-still play it
from time to time.

I've had it all modified inside,

so, it's got all HDMI connections
and stuff now,

so, it doesn't hurt the eyes
when I play on the TV.

At least when he does
get out I can say,

"Well, here,
you can enjoy the console

"that you bought me
all those years ago.

"Just kept it for you,
keep it warm."

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

Obviously I had my mum,

she looked after us

and she did good for us all,
made sure we're always fed,

had a roof over our head,
all that kind of stuff too,

so, she's raised us well.

Whereas Dad didn't have
his dad around.

How a person was raised,

their childhood upbringing obviously
has a lot to do

with how they are as an adult.

Dad didn't have it good
from the start.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

I just thought
we were a normal family.

Mum, Dad, five kids.

(BABY CRIES)

His father Brian had no trouble
putting food on the table.

He and Thelma had married young.

And that was more
to do with the fact

that she had fallen pregnant
with my older sister,

and so it was essentially
a shotgun wedding.

She had to get married

and I don't think my father really

appreciated having
to be forced into a marriage

that he didn't really want.

As far as the kids were concerned,
they had a pretty happy life.

(DOG BARKS)

I interviewed Thelma
on several occasions

and she told me
about her relationship

with Brian being troubled.

Brian walked out on Thelma one day

and she was left as a single mum
with five children.

My dad handed me some chewy

and told me that he was leaving.

That was the last time
he spoke to me

and walked out the door.

When my parents separated,

there was no such thing
as a pension.

And so my mum had to rely
on food donations.

Suddenly, it wasn't necessarily food
on the table every night

and life for those kids
was pretty tough.

They left Melbourne.

They ended up in Tom Price,
a mining town in Western Australia.

(BOMB EXPLODES)

Brenden was starting to get
into a bit of trouble at school.

I think after my dad left

and Brenden's behaviour changed,

that my mum took that as her fault.

You know, that's because
I'm not a good enough parent,

you know, and society says that,

you know, a single mother
can't raise children.

The big turning point
in his life was

when he was made
a ward of the state

because he had hit a girl
with a bike pump.

Now, Brenden was always
of the understanding that

the girl was the judge's daughter

and that's why he got sent
to a boy's home,

but that wasn't actually the reason.

At the time,
my mum was really struggling

with Brenden's behaviour.

She had actually asked the judge
for him to go into a home

because she wasn't coping.

Before Brenden went into a home,
he wasn't a thief,

he didn't steal from anybody.

But when he went into Hillstone,

he was around so many children
who were actually committing crimes

and I think he learnt from that.

I think that that changed
the direction of his life.

How he learned crime
was while he was in a boy's home.

(INTENSE MUSIC)

Brenden Abbott is seeking

to have his sentence
deemed unlawful.

If successful,
it'd mean the serial fugitive

can walk out of prison

free for the first time
in almost 30 years.

Not proud of the stuff
that he's done.

It's like he's older now,
he doesn't really...

Like, he's not going to do something
like that ever again.

Like, the things
that the lawyers have said

and the things Dad said,

it was looking like he was going
to get released really, really soon.

It never goes in his favour

and he doesn't know
what's going to happen.

I can only imagine how he's feeling.

Once it goes to the court,
they just delay, delay, delay

and now we're waiting on a decision
from the judge that she's reserved

and that could take anytime
as long as she wants.

It's just disappointing,
but it's to be expected.

We didn't come here expecting
the best of everything,

so, always expect the worst,
hope for the best.

Of course. Always hopeful.

Yeah, just wait
and see what happens, really.

Yeah.
I just try and stay in high spirits.

So. Yeah, that's it.

That's all I got. Thanks, guys.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

It gets frustrating,
nothing got answered today.

Obviously the judge,

she's not picking up
what he's putting down exactly,

so, she's reserved the decision
on what she's going to do today.

I feel really anxious

that they're not going
to release him.

He's going to sit there
for another five or six years,

maybe longer, you know.

I don't want that, you know, for him
and I just want him out.

Like, it feels like it's so close
to him being released,

but they're just like pushing,
pushing, pushing, pushing.

So, at the moment,
we're still waiting.

We don't know
what's going to happen.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

So they've adjourned it now
to the 11th of August.

So, the lawyer's not called you yet.

They said they're going to speak
with you anyway

and just give you a bit of a debrief
on what happened.

Being in a courtroom,
it's depressing.

Yeah.
It is.

It-it just feels incredibly unfair

that he should not be given
the earliest opportunity

to come out and spend some time

with his... with his family,
with his son.

That's when I wanted to stand up

and be like, "Well, you guys
didn't want him here

"and now you're fighting
to keep him in longer."

Like, do you fucking want him
or don't you want him?

Because I want him.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

Abbott and Aaron,

Raymond Reynolds
sneak out of a workshop,

climb onto a roof
and leap 3m to freedom.

He escaped from Fremantle Prison.

Brenden had been on the run
for five years.

Some people even believed
he wasn't in the country.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

With Brenden living the high life

while-while he was on the run,

there was stories about him
travelling overseas,

a story that he was working
on a pearl lugger

out of Broome
in Western Australia,

that he had his own pilot's licence.

It became quite frustrating.

Where is he and where isn't he?

What allowed him
to remain on the run?

One of the issues was that
no-one was talking to anyone.

Policing in those days
was a very protective thing.

This is my information,

I'm not going to give you
my information

because you might get something
I haven't got.

And without having
a national approach to it,

nothing was going to go anywhere.

So, it was extremely important
that the states work together.

I was going to push for
a better flow of information

between states,

and so I was able to make contact
with Sid Thomas in South Australia.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

I started Operation Passion

because I found that the cooperation

from the other states
was not as good

as it could have been.

Glen Potter and I formed
quite a strong alliance

and he was extremely good detective

who had the same passion
for apprehending Abbott.

We tried to coordinate the knowledge

and intelligence
on a structured basis.

And as a consequence,

we started getting
the other states on board

and we started talking
about similarities

that were occurring between
the robberies over here with Abbott

but also what was going on up
in Queensland

and it started to wield results.

So, I'd taken out a file
and going through the file,

it sparked a memory.

When I was in 79 Division,

we'd been called to
a domestic dispute,

a woman by the name of Kelly Fisher

was having a domestic dispute
with Glen Salmon.

We soon learned when we were there,

Salmon was actually
Brenden Abbott's brother.

And in our discussions,

we were finding that Glen
had been over east

and that period over east

coincided with a well-known robbery

on the Gold Coast.

Commonwealth Bank
at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast

was robbed with consummate ease.

And they just went from to teller

until they had obviously satisfied

with the amounts
that they had received.

Glen was over there with Brenden,

so, Glen was obviously someone
we needed to really focus on.

(POLICE SIREN)

We followed Salmon everywhere.

Salmon had been caught speeding.

They had started searching the car

and they found
what looked like a silencer.

Salmon said it was a muffler
to a motorbike or a go-kart.

They started digging more

and then they found
some ammunition in there.

And at that very moment,

Salmon sprayed both officers
in the eyes

with what we call pepper spray.

They both lunged on him.

Salmon tried to take the gun
out of one of the holsters

with one of the fellas

and Salmon was working very hard

to try and get hold of that gun

to obviously escape
full on fight occurred,

still blinded rolling on the ground.

They eventually subdued him
and got in handcuffs.

(ROCK MUSIC)

We had him brought back
under close guard.

He was shackled

and he was put
into the interview room

and then we just let him sit there
for a while.

(INTENSE MUSIC)

(LIGHT BULB CRACKLES)

We wanted to talk to him,
get into his head,

find out what was important to him,

and a summary of that would've been

his allegiance to Brenden

or his new family.

It was a choice he had to make.

Whether his family
were important to him

or Brenden was.

Look, he didn't directly
give Brenden up,

but what he did do

is he gave us a post office box
at Mermaid Beach.

(POLICE SIREN)

Within minutes
of getting that information,

that was out to the Queensland guys.

Post office box was raided,

items were found
in the post office box,

which gave us an address

for the apartment on Broadbeach.

Queensland Police
had a high rise opposite

observing him from that high rise

and identified
it was Brenden Abbott.

Then they saw him leave the flat,

they had a surveillance
operative downstairs

and he was confronted
by the surveillance operative

and he was taken into custody.

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

32-year-old Brenden James Abbott.

His five-year life on the run
was abruptly terminated.

Fucking oath he was,

five years on the run
out of Fremantle Prison

amassing that amount of money.

Yeah, of course he was.

He was a hell of an adversary.

Well, it was a quite sheer relief,

the psychology
of a professional bank robber,

they're certainly thinking
more about themselves

and their own existence
than they are of the people

that they're robbing.

If you are a victim
of any of these robberies,

you've got to put yourself
in that position

and think, "How would I feel?"

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

My name's Gwen Lehmann.

I did 14 years
with Commonwealth Bank.

I would start, I think it was 9:30

just as the bank opened

and I think I probably
finished about 4:15,

which suited me
doing the shorter hours

being a mother.

15 minute drive home
to be with the kids,

you know, just be arriving
home themselves

and, yeah, it was great

until it was robbed
by Brenden Abbott.

Hold ups have been constantly
in the news in recent months.

There'd been a spate of robberies

and, yeah, it was in the news a lot.

And on that Australia Day
long weekend

trying to be vigilant,

a closing time came around,
everything was great,

you know, and that's
when I heard this crash

and I saw this figure emerging

and then another one
and all in black.

I could see the gun,

and so that's why immediately
I dropped down.

(SOBS)

You're just hoping the police
are going to get there really quick.

You're just in shock, you know,

because it is so aggressive
and frightening.

How can he do that?
It's not his money.

He's got no right to be doing that
and frightening all these people,

you know, just get a job.

I didn't stay at that branch
very long after that.

I really didn't want to, I guess.

Didn't need that trauma in my life.

You can't help
but take it personally though,

just hoped he would be
caught really.

I'm not happy that
they do glamorise people

that do these things.

They're not to be celebrated,
are they?

I'm sure a lot more bank officers
probably feel the same.

Yeah, Dad, he likes to cook.

He's always got his little...

That's another thing I want
to ask him when he gets out,

everyone's got their little...

their little prison recipes
they make inside.

But I'd like to see him
cook me something.

(PHONE RINGS)

If you do not wish
to receive this call,

please hang up.

Go ahead, please.

Some things they've found
the lawyers have found

and things that
they see doesn't add up.

(LAUGHS)

So, what they're looking at now
is he was basically since 2016,

he's been unlawfully detained

so, he probably shouldn't have been
even put back inside after that.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know.

That's what I said
that you're seeing people

that are fucking,
they're kiddy fiddlers

or fucking murderers
or fucking rapists

and all this kind of stuff
and then yeah, it's ridiculous.

(PHONE BEEPS)

Yeah.

Yeah, that's fine, mate.
No, dramas.

Yeah, and then the last
30, 40 seconds

you just cop those beeps,

so, it's hard to kind of hear
what he says.

Sometimes like if he makes a remark
or says a certain thing,

there's always someone
listening for every call,

they listen to those,

they'll just shut the call down
and they'll just cancel the call.

Trying to have a relationship
with him

with all those kind
of restrictions in place,

it's not... it's not
out of the ordinary for me,

so, to me it's just like getting
ten-minute phone calls with him

or getting an hour visit
with him when I see him in person,

that is normal.

I've never had it any other way.

What'd he say?
Ten minutes, didn't he?

It's been 11 minutes now.

Already let me down.

(ROCK MUSIC)

In 1997,

Brenden had been on the run
for five years.

On the ground.

Eventually got caught
on the Gold Coast

and then we've got him
locked up in Longland

in a maximum security prison.

(ROCK MUSIC)

It was a great time

because he wasn't
our problem anymore.

How's he going
to get out of this one?

He's not.

Brenden Abbott.

Australia's most
celebrated bank robber

and prison escapee
is finally back behind bars.

At that point,

I thought the Brenden Abbott
story was over.

I thought, "That's it.

"He's never going
to get out of prison."

But then after a short while,
it went back to business as usual.

In this document here,
which obviously he's written,

he's outlined a handle he made up

out of something he found
in the prison

for the diamond wire
to cut through the-the bars.

You just can't hold the wire
and cut away,

it'll just cut through your hand.

So, he is devised a form
of a handle.

It just shows the length of detail
he went to do his planning.

Abbott and these other four inmates

have diamond wire
and smuggled into the prison.

The wire was inserted inside
the antenna of a radio

that was delivered to Abbott

as a gift from a family member

and it probably
would've been checked.

It would've opened up the inside
and had a look,

but no-one looked inside
the antenna.

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

Brenden Abbott
had befriended an inmate

and his name was Berichon.

Your conversation will be recorded.
Go ahead please.

Berichon.

Berichon has sourced weapons
and organised getaway cars

using code as to
when the escape would occur.

They had to each individually
break out of their cells

and then also escape
out of the block itself.

Berichon signalled to them
that it's OK to escape

with a flash of a light.

They used plastic chairs
that they melted together

and stacked up to be able
to leap over the razor wire

that surrounded the block.

There were several fences
that they had to get through.

The prison perimeter vehicle
come trundling around the corner,

Berichon had to open fire on them.

With a high-powered rifle.

(GUN FIRES)

No-one knew
what was going to happen next.

Brisbane was a city under siege.

We haven't got a clue
where they're going,

what their plans are.

Was there going to be a shoot-out?

Was there going to be
a bank robbery?

Heavily armed police
were out in force today

combing the bushland
and suburbs to Brisbane south.

It just felt like
anything could happen.

There was just I think a real sense
of nervous tension in the air.

(POLICE SIREN)

Three of the men are serving
life sentences for murder.

Another is serving 13 years
while suspected ringleader.

Brenden Abbott is serving 12 years
for armed robbery.

When Brenden escaped from Longland,

he escaped with accomplices,

at least four other complete losers

who were dangerous criminals

who were going to create havoc,

you know, going to brothels,
committing offences.

He always knew
that coppers had limited resources

and if we are chasing off
after those guys

who were just going nuts
after an escape,

there's less chance
we're going to be working on him

or discovering him.

The other guys could
eventually got caught

and him and Berichon went off

and they teamed up for a while,

which enabled Brenden
to carry on his robberies.

This sounds nice, Atlantic salmon.

It's probably the dearest
fucking thing on the menu.

It would mean the world for me

to see Brenden get out
and spend time with James.

Probably more so for James
than for Brenden

because I believe that James

is desperate to have some
sort of a connection with his dad.

If they do come back
and work it all out.

How does it work though?
Can he walk?

Like, if they go, "OK, it's wrong."

Like, there's no reason
they can reserve the decision.

Like, if that's the case,

they should say all it needs
to be out today.

Yep.

If I was in his position, they said,

"Oh, no, your time
was served years ago."

I'm like, "Oh, open the door.
I'm walking outside now."

And every minute
they hold him after,

they hold him against
his will, really, aren't they?

Yeah. Well, yeah.

So, I'll just hop straight
on the plane and go, really?

If I got a call and saying,
"Yeah, it's all sweet",

I'd book a flight and I'd be
at the airport within the hour.

Yep. Yep.
And then, yeah.

How do you think he's going
to go flying back, though?

I don't know,
he'd probably be a bit fan...

probably want me to put him
in fucking business class.

You'd have to.

If he carries
and I'll strap him to the wing.

(LAUGHS)

I think Brenden
has definitely served his time.

Brenden needs to get out of jail

and he needs to spend time
with his own son,

which he has not done

since his son was born, pretty much.

If he's due for parole in October...

Mm-hm.

If they don't start integrating him,

they're going to say,
"No, we're not giving him parole

"because he hasn't had
enough integration time."

Yeah.

Like, 'cause he needs to be able

to get used to looking
after himself.

Well, that's right.

Not that he can't do it,
but still...

It's... You want to give some...

But that's an excuse
for them to say no.

He's 63 years old.
I know.

When are they going
to fucking let it go?

I know.

I have never ever said

that I don't believe that Brenden
should have served time.

He did a crime

and when you do a crime,
you do the time.

This is not time.

This was not anymore
about a bank robber,

this was a political agenda

because they were pissed off
at what he had done.

Abbot's been on the run
for almost a month now.

One sighting was in the city,

but we have been unable
to confirm this.

The elusive escapee
could still be just about anywhere.

It's a cat and mouse game.

Cops trying to find a crook,
especially someone like that.

When Brenden escaped
from Longland prison,

he and Berichon teamed up.

Berichon was obviously
on the run with Abbott

and in Victoria
there was an incident

where there had been a drug deal

identified by two
Victorian police officers.

And as a result of that,

there had been a shooting

and the two officers
had been wounded.

And it turned out it was Berichon.

(SIREN WAILS)

Warrants have been issued

for the arrest of 20-year-old
Brenden Luke Berichon

over the shooting
of two police officers with him,

Australia's notorious
Postcard Bandit.

You've taken a big step
when you shoot coppers.

That raised hackles
across the country.

(HELICOPTER WHIRRS)

(SIREN WAILS)

So, now that we have a shooting

the Postcard Bandit becomes
a national thing of interest again.

Order. Members will calm down.

Brenden Abbott's embarrassed
the governments of both Queensland,

WA at a political level.

We can't keep a prisoner in.

Politicians pay attention to that.

But Abbott very much
became a political football.

The opposition Labor Party
were hammering the Nationals

over the fact
that Abbott had managed

to escape from prison.

Brenden Abbott is a symbol

of the incompetence
of this government.

The two parties in Queensland

were vying for the reputations

of being the toughest
on law and order.

Where is Brenden Abbott?

Berichon went off the rails
in Victoria and shot the copper.

We now had something firm

that they're on the move

that ultimately led to Darwin.

Well, it was a bit
of a lead up to his capture.

I was asked to listen
to some telephone intercepts

by the National Crime
Authority in relation

to a person they thought
might've been Brenden Abbott

in the north of Australia.

When I listened to the tape,
yeah, it did sound like him.

Things really started moving,

but the authorities were very angry
and as a consequence,

they were going to throw
everything in at the hunt

for Brenden Abbott.

He's been very lucky
to slip through the police net

but he got very unlucky that day.

He was caught coming out
from doing his laundry.

(POLICE SIREN)

Good evening.

Australia's most notorious
bank robber, Brenden Abbott,

is back behind bars tonight.

One of his requests has been for us

to retrieve his laundry
in the dryer.

Brenden, are you looking forward
to going back to Queensland?

It wasn't a typical thing
for a criminal

to be flown from one city
to another in a... in a private jet.

The level of notoriety
that he had gained

and the fears that the police
probably quite rightly

had at that stage

were that it required
the highest level of security.

There was that Lex Luther persona
surrounding Abbott.

He was in the eyes of the police
and corrective services,

he was a super villain
capable of anything.

Abbott was moved by helicopter
to high security at Woodford Prison.

They set up
this special cell for him

in the supermax at Woodford

and vowed that he would be
remaining in solitary

for a very long time

and no opportunity to escape
and that's exactly what happened.

(CELL DOOR SHUTS)

(BIRDS CHIRP)

Abbott spent
the best part of ten years

in solitary confinement in,

like, Hannibal Lector almost.

Oh, being in solitary
like 23 hours a day lockdown,

I'm pretty sure, like, in your cell,
basically,

that would be enough
to drive anyone insane.

I think he did six years straight
at one stage with that,

which is fucking ridiculous.

I don't know how
they got away with doing that.

How do you get through that,
like, to not be crazy?

You know, what I mean for what,
12 years?

Oh, yeah.

As far as his mental health
that goes,

he seems in good spirits
and all that kind of stuff too,

but you can never really tell.

You know, someone
can be really depressed

and no-one would even know

because the person's always showing
like a smile and being all happy.

(KEYS JINGLE)

The treatment was just insane.

He's in jail, you've got him
in maximum security.

Why are you doing this?

Anyone spending
24 hours by themselves

knows it's difficult.

To do that for the timeframe he did,

I mean, to me that was just gutless
to the authorities too.

I'm surprised that Brenden

is not completely screwed
in the head, completely.

30 years inside is punishment

for embarrassing the system.

I do think that is what has happened
to Brenden Abbott,

but he has been behind bars

since 1995 with the exception
of that six months on the run

and most of that time
has been in solitary.

I think there's the old attitude,
do the crime, you serve the time.

There are probably
plenty of good reasons

why he wants to get out

because I'm sure
there's still funds available.

I did have some knowledge

that he's got money stashed here
in South Australia,

but where, who knows?

Look, I feel for the victims.

Anyone who's had a gun
pointed in their face,

he deserves to have been punished
for that.

But having said that,
he's done his time.

I have to say, I mean,
I've locked up murderers

who've got one third of the sentence
that he's got.

Go to the pub, have some pool,
have something to eat.

Like, now it's getting close
I'm actually starting to think like,

"Fuck, what can we do?"

I'm sure he wouldn't mind
doing something like this.

It's pretty relaxing too,

you won't have to talk
to many people,

you just sit there and play a game.

Will probably go out of his way too
to make sure he can beat me.

Just spending one day together

will be like a whole year's worth
of phone calls and visits.

He's getting older as well too,

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

Like, Dad's been saying for years,

he goes, "I'm old now"
and stuff too.

He goes, like,

"I don't have interest
in wanting to try and run away.

"I don't want to rob banks."

like he goes, "I've done all that,
look what it's cost me."

He has no amount of money

is worth the years
that he spent in jail

when he could have been outside
with me

having a-a legitimate life.

When do I get out,

the criminal activities'
done and dusted.

Too old for that shit now.

I want to spend a lot of time
with James.

Hasn't been fair for him,
I must say.

I wasn't going out in the run

expecting to have a child,
have a son.

I have no regrets about that.

Go fishing, doing up
an old car or something

and just basically have
my freedom back, really.

That's not much I'm asking for.

I mean, if I went down
a different path in life,

who knows what I could have done
is what it is, you know.

I can't change anything,

I may as well, you know,
enjoy the ride.

What's the first thing
you think you're going to do

if you get released?

Um, I might have to go to the bank.

(THEME MUSIC)

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