Police Search Bushland For Jail Breakers

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday November 7, 1997

By GREG ROBERTS

Police were searching last night for two dangerous jail escapees, including the notorious armed robber Brendan Abbott, in bush in the outer western Brisbane suburb of Camira.

And police admitted they had followed a taxi containing three other escapees for 20 minutes but did not see them get out at a busy intersection in central Brisbane.

Abbott, 32, and four other felons - rapist Peter Sterling, 31, and murderers Oliver Alincic, 32, Jason Nixon, 27, and Andrew Jeffrey, 20 - escaped from the Sir David Longland Correctional Centre early Wednesday morning as at least two accomplices pinned down prison guards with gunfire.

An elderly man told police late yesterday that he disturbed two men in his backyard opposite the Camira State School, about six kilometres south-west of the jail.

When the man asked the pair what they were doing, they ran into the bush. Police immediately rushed in helicopters and sniffer dogs and closed streets.

They believe the men may be Abbott and Alincic, who are thought to have split from the other fugitives.

Sterling, Nixon and Jeffrey avoided a huge dragnet involving more than 150 police and are believed to be the men who approached a resident, Mr Brad Schofield, about 4 pm on Wednesday.

Mr Schofield called a Yellow Cab for the men, who told him the "choppers were for them", and called police as soon as they left. Police alerted Yellow Cabs, which monitored the taxi's progress under the global positioning system. A company source said the men were "cool, calm and courteous" and the driver had no idea who they were.

A police vehicle following the taxi saw it stop in peak-hour traffic in the city but did not see the men alight after paying their fare with a $50 note. Police did not stop the taxi until 15 minutes later, in the southern suburb of Coorparoo.

A police spokesman, Mr Brian Swift, said they could not have been expected to see the men leave the taxi "The surveillance car was doing what covert surveillance does, remaining covert. It stayed back."

The Premier, Mr Borbidge, reacted angrily to revelations that authorities at the jail had suspected several weeks ago that Abbott was planning an escape.

"I'm appalled and disgusted with what took place," Mr Borbidge said. "It should not have happened. It is a disgrace."

Police found a second firearm yesterday in the bush area they searched on Wednesday. They believe all five men may be armed, and have repeated warnings to the public to exercise extreme caution.

The Opposition Leader, Mr Peter Beattie, said a microphonic alarm-wire system surrounding B Block, from where the prisoners escaped, had not worked for several weeks but had not been replaced for cost reasons.