Original subtitles

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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