Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au

Aaron Bunch
NT prison escapees captured after car bogs

Three Northern Territory prison escapees have been arrested after their stolen car got bogged in the Northern Territory outback.

January 21, 2022

Three sunburnt and thirsty prison escapees have been captured after their stolen car got bogged in the Northern Territory outback.

Richard Henwood, 37, Ezra Austral, 23, and Maximus Cutta, 20, fled the Barkly Work Camp – about 1000km south of Darwin – on Saturday after removing their electronic monitoring bracelets.

Acting Commissioner Michael Murphy says police set up a perimeter around the camp and the nearby town of Tennant Creek.

“Obviously they were well aware of it and they laid low in town for a while,” he told reporters on Friday.

The trio eventually tried to flee the area in a stolen car but it got bogged on the town’s outskirts amid wet season rain during the week.

Commissioner Murphy said a local resident helped the men before realising they were the escapees police were searching for.

“They were sunburnt and dehydrated and he gave them a lift to another location,” he said.

The man later alerted police who searched the area where the man had left the men.

All three were captured late on Thursday.

“Two of men were arrested together and shortly after Austral was arrested at another location,” Commissioner Murphy said.

The maximum temperatures in the town have hovered in the high thirties since Saturday, peaking at 40C on Wednesday despite the rain.

The Barkly Work Camp is a low-security correctional work camp two kilometres from the Tennant Creek town centre.

It holds open-security prisoners and no sex offenders or prisoners of public interest are placed at the camp.

Comments are closed.

Latest Stories
archive
date published
March 2024
M T W T F S S
« Feb    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031