Brenden Abbott
Encyclopedia
Brenden James Abbott is an Australia
n bank robber who was branded the Postcard Bandit by the Western Australian Police to attract news media attention. The bank robberies he has been attributed as masterminding, yielded as much as A$
6 million, though a significant proportion of that amount was unrecoverable.
He is currently detained in the Woodford Correctional Centre
and is often moved between this facility and the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre
and has been moved between mainstream and Supermax several times over the last 12 years.
Brenden James Abbott has escaped from custody four times, once as a juvenile from Belmont
Police Station, and once in 1986 during questioning at Nollamara
Police Station. Force was used in one of those four escapes by a young co-offender, Brenden Berichon. Abbott's last escape in 1997 was at Sir David Longland Prison at Wacol, also known as "the Killing Fields," which was later decommissioned by the Queensland government. During the incident he escaped with three inmates. One inmate, Brendon Berichon, fired shots from the outside of the fence, allegedly in panic when the intended escape plans went awry. Brendon Berichon has since been paroled.
The Fremantle Prison
escape that earned Abbott his lifelong notoriety as a criminal genius, and ultimately led to his branding as "The Postcard Bandit," occurred on 24 November 1989. Abbott and another inmate escaped by jumping from the roof, over the high limestone prison walls, in uniforms similar to guards' that Abbott had sewn in the prison tailorshop. Fremantle Prison, built in the 1850s originally as an immigration holding centre, had a long history of escapes which feature in the heritage listed site's tours. Fremantle Prison, like Sir David Longland Prison, was also decommissioned by the government due to substandard conditions in the years after Abbott's escape. Both prisons were notorious for their severe and outdated conditions, and inmates' bloody and brutal existence. Nollmara Police Station featured in the 2003 Western Australian Kennedy Royal Commission into Police Corruption, with former detainees making claims about torture during questioning.
A film about Abbott, The Postcard Bandit
, was made for television by Nine Films/Pacific Coast Entertainment in 2003 and released on DVD on 22 March 2005.
Abbott has been on the run three times, for six months in 1986/1987; as Australia's Most Wanted Man from 1989-1995 (five and a half years), and from 1997-1998 (six months). He was eventually caught in Darwin, Northern Territory
in 1998 and is serving a 23 year sentence in Queensland
for bank robberies and the 1997 prison escape. After serving two years of his current sentence in solitary confinement, he sued the Queensland Government for mistreatment. He was released from solitary confinement in May 2004 and returned there on a Maximum Security Order in April 2006, after he requested medical attention three times in 12 months, which the authorities deemed suspicious. After years in mainstream, Abbott was again returned to Supermax solitary confinement in August 2008 and then released back into mainstream detention in the days preceding a judicial review hearing into his back-to-back Maximum Security Orders, in October 2009.
Dubbed the Postcard Bandit, media reports in the 1990s said Abbott sent postcards of his travels to the Western Australian Police. However, the postcards in the "Postcard Bandit" story were a WA Police Media Unit invention; The "postcards" were photos Abbott lost while running from police after the Fremantle Prison escape with Aaron Reynolds, and were intended for his friends and family. They included a picture of Reynolds outside the Dwellingup
Police Station, in Western Australia. While Reynolds was arrested within weeks, the fugitive, Abbott, went on to establish himself as a "professional" bank robber, using self-taught skills in make-up to create convincing disguises, computers to create false IDs, and electronics to dodge alarms.
His five and a half years on the run came to an end when police tracked down a post office box on the Gold Coast, Queensland
used by Abbott, which was found to contain a pager bill registered to the address where he was living. Confronted by police at a Darwin laundromat he surrendered without resistance and this is a facet typical of each of his arrests, historically.
A former ward of the state, Abbott is a member of the Forgotten Australians and suffers a range of anxiety and health-related problems, noted in semi-biographical work by Derek Pedley, Australian Outlaw. The biography also mentions his childhood affliction with chronic supperative otitis media, a painful recurrent middle-ear disease prevalent in Western Australia's North-West, causing lifelong hearing loss and auditory processing delay, and an elevated risk of juvenile interaction with the criminal justice system.
Western Australian Labor politicians have twice refused Abbott's transfer applications in 2005 and 2008 to return to the state to complete his sentence. In 2004 Queensland authorities approved an interstate transfer but Western Australian Attorney-General Jim McGinty
refused to accept him. In early 2007, Abbott re-applied to be transferred to Western Australia and that was approved by the Queensland Attorney General in 2008. However, former WA Corrective Services Minister, Margaret Quirk, promptly released a media statement rejecting Abbott's bid to return home. Abbott has applied for transfer back to Western Australia four times in response to the outstanding warrants, though all the applications have been refused by the Western Australian government. In May 2010 Glenn Cordingly of The Sunday Times in Perth, cited an unnamed WA Police source who alleged that Western Australian authorities "had a cell waiting" for Abbott, although there has been no official confirmation of such. The story, though almost twelve months old, is still sparking public debate, which is indicative of the public perceptions of Abbott's treatment and sentencing.
A 1994 warrant for questioning remains in place with Adelaide Criminal Prosecutions Branch for one count of armed robbery in Glenelg, South Australia. In mid-2008, Brenden Abbott applied for an interstate transfer to South Australia to address the outstanding warrant. The application followed official statements by Adelaide detective Sid Thomas, in The Adelaide Advertiser in 2008, that detectives were travelling to Queensland to question Abbott at Woodford Correctional Centre, although no such interview has ever occurred. In December 2010, Abbott's application for a South Australian transfer was approved by the Queensland Attorney General, and the South Australian Attorney General's decision is pending. On 12 June 2011, Adelaide Advertiser reporter Nigel Hunt incorrectly reported that Abbott had filed for a Supreme Court Judicial Review regarding the application to transfer to face the charges. Hunt's story concludes with an unnamed source's suspicions that Abbott committed not just the one he is sought for questioning over, but multiple robberies in South Australia. The author of the book based on Abbott's life, Australian Outlaw, is currently the night-editor at The Adelaide Advertiser, and speculated in the book that Abbott had done robberies in South Australia, though the SA Police have never questioned him.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n bank robber who was branded the Postcard Bandit by the Western Australian Police to attract news media attention. The bank robberies he has been attributed as masterminding, yielded as much as A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
6 million, though a significant proportion of that amount was unrecoverable.
He is currently detained in the Woodford Correctional Centre
Woodford Correctional Centre
Woodford Correctional Centre is an Australian prison facility located in Woodford, Queensland, Australia.The prison is the highest security facility in Queensland as mentioned located in Woodford Queensland, approximately 80 kilometres from Brisbane and 30 minutes from Caboolture.On 1 April 1997,...
and is often moved between this facility and the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre is a prison located on the Ipswich Motorway at Wacol in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. It is a high security prison that is used for remand prisoners, and also for the temporary detention of prisoners while their 'security level' is ascertained.The...
and has been moved between mainstream and Supermax several times over the last 12 years.
Brenden James Abbott has escaped from custody four times, once as a juvenile from Belmont
Belmont, Western Australia
The City of Belmont is a Local Government Area in the inner eastern suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, located about east of Perth's central business district on the south bank of the Swan River...
Police Station, and once in 1986 during questioning at Nollamara
Nollamara, Western Australia
Nollamara is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Stirling.The name "Nollamara" is the Aboriginal word for the plant known as the Black Kangaroo Paw.-Transport:...
Police Station. Force was used in one of those four escapes by a young co-offender, Brenden Berichon. Abbott's last escape in 1997 was at Sir David Longland Prison at Wacol, also known as "the Killing Fields," which was later decommissioned by the Queensland government. During the incident he escaped with three inmates. One inmate, Brendon Berichon, fired shots from the outside of the fence, allegedly in panic when the intended escape plans went awry. Brendon Berichon has since been paroled.
The Fremantle Prison
Fremantle Prison
Fremantle Prison is a former Australian prison located in The Terrace, Fremantle, in Western Australia. The site includes the prison, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, tunnels, and prisoner art...
escape that earned Abbott his lifelong notoriety as a criminal genius, and ultimately led to his branding as "The Postcard Bandit," occurred on 24 November 1989. Abbott and another inmate escaped by jumping from the roof, over the high limestone prison walls, in uniforms similar to guards' that Abbott had sewn in the prison tailorshop. Fremantle Prison, built in the 1850s originally as an immigration holding centre, had a long history of escapes which feature in the heritage listed site's tours. Fremantle Prison, like Sir David Longland Prison, was also decommissioned by the government due to substandard conditions in the years after Abbott's escape. Both prisons were notorious for their severe and outdated conditions, and inmates' bloody and brutal existence. Nollmara Police Station featured in the 2003 Western Australian Kennedy Royal Commission into Police Corruption, with former detainees making claims about torture during questioning.
A film about Abbott, The Postcard Bandit
The Postcard Bandit (film)
The Postcard Bandit is a 2003 Australian film loosely based on the life of convicted bank robber Brenden Abbott.-Cast:*Tom Long as Brenden James Abbott*Brett Stiller*Matthew Le Nevez*Geneviève Lemon*Simon Burke*Helen Dallimore*Tasma Walton...
, was made for television by Nine Films/Pacific Coast Entertainment in 2003 and released on DVD on 22 March 2005.
Abbott has been on the run three times, for six months in 1986/1987; as Australia's Most Wanted Man from 1989-1995 (five and a half years), and from 1997-1998 (six months). He was eventually caught in Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
in 1998 and is serving a 23 year sentence in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
for bank robberies and the 1997 prison escape. After serving two years of his current sentence in solitary confinement, he sued the Queensland Government for mistreatment. He was released from solitary confinement in May 2004 and returned there on a Maximum Security Order in April 2006, after he requested medical attention three times in 12 months, which the authorities deemed suspicious. After years in mainstream, Abbott was again returned to Supermax solitary confinement in August 2008 and then released back into mainstream detention in the days preceding a judicial review hearing into his back-to-back Maximum Security Orders, in October 2009.
Dubbed the Postcard Bandit, media reports in the 1990s said Abbott sent postcards of his travels to the Western Australian Police. However, the postcards in the "Postcard Bandit" story were a WA Police Media Unit invention; The "postcards" were photos Abbott lost while running from police after the Fremantle Prison escape with Aaron Reynolds, and were intended for his friends and family. They included a picture of Reynolds outside the Dwellingup
Dwellingup, Western Australia
Dwellingup is a town in Western Australia, located in a timber and fruitgrowing area in the Darling Range east-south-east of Pinjarra. At the 2006 census, Dwellingup had a population of 346.-Name:...
Police Station, in Western Australia. While Reynolds was arrested within weeks, the fugitive, Abbott, went on to establish himself as a "professional" bank robber, using self-taught skills in make-up to create convincing disguises, computers to create false IDs, and electronics to dodge alarms.
His five and a half years on the run came to an end when police tracked down a post office box on the Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
used by Abbott, which was found to contain a pager bill registered to the address where he was living. Confronted by police at a Darwin laundromat he surrendered without resistance and this is a facet typical of each of his arrests, historically.
A former ward of the state, Abbott is a member of the Forgotten Australians and suffers a range of anxiety and health-related problems, noted in semi-biographical work by Derek Pedley, Australian Outlaw. The biography also mentions his childhood affliction with chronic supperative otitis media, a painful recurrent middle-ear disease prevalent in Western Australia's North-West, causing lifelong hearing loss and auditory processing delay, and an elevated risk of juvenile interaction with the criminal justice system.
Current sentencing
The Australian mainstream media has widely featured speculation that at the conclusion of Abbott's current Queensland sentence the West Australian police may apply to the Queensland courts to extradite Abbott to complete the remainder of a sentence for an armed robbery, and for trial over one count of escaping custody. Presently, no legal provisions exist for his past and present sentences to be served concurrently across the state boundaries of Queensland and Western Australia, and this is one factor contributing to the public perception that the prison time Abbott has served is disproportionate to sentences commonly handed down by the courts for similar offences.Western Australian Labor politicians have twice refused Abbott's transfer applications in 2005 and 2008 to return to the state to complete his sentence. In 2004 Queensland authorities approved an interstate transfer but Western Australian Attorney-General Jim McGinty
Jim McGinty
James Andrew McGinty is an Australian politician. He was a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 2009, representing the district of Fremantle. He was Labor Party leader and Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1996...
refused to accept him. In early 2007, Abbott re-applied to be transferred to Western Australia and that was approved by the Queensland Attorney General in 2008. However, former WA Corrective Services Minister, Margaret Quirk, promptly released a media statement rejecting Abbott's bid to return home. Abbott has applied for transfer back to Western Australia four times in response to the outstanding warrants, though all the applications have been refused by the Western Australian government. In May 2010 Glenn Cordingly of The Sunday Times in Perth, cited an unnamed WA Police source who alleged that Western Australian authorities "had a cell waiting" for Abbott, although there has been no official confirmation of such. The story, though almost twelve months old, is still sparking public debate, which is indicative of the public perceptions of Abbott's treatment and sentencing.
A 1994 warrant for questioning remains in place with Adelaide Criminal Prosecutions Branch for one count of armed robbery in Glenelg, South Australia. In mid-2008, Brenden Abbott applied for an interstate transfer to South Australia to address the outstanding warrant. The application followed official statements by Adelaide detective Sid Thomas, in The Adelaide Advertiser in 2008, that detectives were travelling to Queensland to question Abbott at Woodford Correctional Centre, although no such interview has ever occurred. In December 2010, Abbott's application for a South Australian transfer was approved by the Queensland Attorney General, and the South Australian Attorney General's decision is pending. On 12 June 2011, Adelaide Advertiser reporter Nigel Hunt incorrectly reported that Abbott had filed for a Supreme Court Judicial Review regarding the application to transfer to face the charges. Hunt's story concludes with an unnamed source's suspicions that Abbott committed not just the one he is sought for questioning over, but multiple robberies in South Australia. The author of the book based on Abbott's life, Australian Outlaw, is currently the night-editor at The Adelaide Advertiser, and speculated in the book that Abbott had done robberies in South Australia, though the SA Police have never questioned him.