VIC: Remand prisoner escapes briefly during hospital visit

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-1999
VIC: Remand prisoner escapes briefly during hospital visit

MELBOURNE, April 23 AAP - A remand prisoner charged with murder being held at Melbourne's
privately-run Port Phillip Prison today made a dash for freedom in central Melbourne in peak
hour after a hospital visit, a spokesman for the prison said.

The prisoner, whose name has not been released, had attended a special prison ward at St
Vincent's Hospital where an ultrasound was conducted over a self-inflicted injury, the
spokesman for the prison management firm Group Four said.

"He was about to be put back in the prison van. He was hand-cuffed, but not hand-cuffed to
the prison officer," the spokesman said.

"He yanked away, pulled away the cuff the officer had hold of and ran out of the hospital
grounds," he said.

An ambulance driver who witnessed the incident tried to use his vehicle to thwart the
escape attempt, but the prisoner evaded him, he said.

The prisoner ran out onto the major central Melbourne intersection of Victoria Parade and
Nicholson St, and ran towards a car, apparently intending to get in the car but the driver
sped off, the spokesman said.

He then ran along tram tracks and was almost hit by a tram, he said.

But the dash for freedom ended when the two prison officers, both employees of Group Four,
caught up with the prisoner.

A spokesman for the Victoria Police said the police prison squad was investigating the
incident.

AAP gf/cdh

KEYWORD: ESCAPE VIC

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