The drama surrounding the escape of seven dangerous prisoners from Maitland Gaol on September 1, 1977 didn't end with their swift recapture and return to prison.

As I previously wrote, after their recapture all seven prisoners were charged with escaping from custody and crimes committed during their brief freedom.

After appearing before Maitland Court of Petty Sessions they were shipped off to Katingal, the new "escape-proof" maximum security prison adjacent to the Long Bay complex. They returned to Maitland Court on November 3, 1977 and, to our surprise, indicated that they wished to plead guilty to all charges.

After a discussion with the police prosecutor, it was decided not to accept the guilty pleas. If their pleas were accepted they would be committed for sentence without our evidence being tested, and would later return to East Maitland District Court for sentencing.

If they then reversed their pleas, which was very likely, the case would be sent back to the petty sessions to start over again. And each step, with movements from Sydney to Maitland and back, presented an opportunity for escape (and we subsequently learned that escapes were planned).

So we presented the evidence in full. I was in the witness box for about an hour and the only objection from Willy Sutton [one of the accused] was the occasional interjection for me to get on with it so they could get back to Sydney.

Because of the volume of evidence, the proceedings continued into the next day - so they were housed at Maitland Gaol overnight.

That night, Russell "Mad Dog" Cox escaped from Katingal - the only prisoner ever to do so. There is little doubt that if our seven were back at Katingal, one or more of them - Ray Denning at the very least - would have escaped with him.

Russell Cox (born Melville Schnitzerling in 1946, son of a petty criminal) kicked off his criminal career when he was about 12 - stealing, break and enters - and he spent part of his early life in an orphanage. In 1975, he was sentenced to 12 years jail for armed robbery.

In August of that year, along with two other prisoners, Cox attempted to escape from Long Bay Gaol by taking a prison officer hostage, using him as a human shield, stealing weapons from the gatehouse and shooting at pursuing officers.

All three were wounded and recaptured, and Cox was sentenced to life imprisonment. After breaking out of Katingal in November 1977 he remained on the run for 10 years, committing further armed hold-ups and allegedly living in England and Germany for a time.

But it gets more interesting. The year after his escape from Katingal, Cox tried to break back in. Arriving in the dead of night with a bag of loaded guns, he cut through the roof bars with a welding torch.

The plan was to rescue his mates, including Denning, but it came undone when a woman opposite the jail saw the sparks and called the police. Hearing the sirens, Cox made a run for it.

In 1980, Denning escaped from Grafton Gaol (the first prisoner to do so) and made his way to Brisbane, and in September 1981 teamed up with Russell Cox to rob an armoured payroll van of $327,000, the largest payroll robbery in Queensland's history.

Denning was arrested two months later in Sydney; Cox continued to avoid arrest. Denning was now addicted to heroin and for some reason was classified as a medium-security prisoner (possibly because he had turned informer).

In July 1988 he escaped from Goulburn Gaol, again teamed up with Cox in Melbourne, and they were arrested a short time later while trying to rob an armoured van, when shots were again exchanged with police. Denning, now a valuable informer who helped police dismantle the criminal support network that had helped Cox, was released from prison in 1993 and found dead from a heroin overdose - believed to be a "hotshot" or deliberate overdose - less than three months later. Russell Cox was released from prison in 2004 and disappeared from view.

As for the other six from the Maitland Gaol escape: Stephen Shipley was murdered in Parramatta Gaol in 1981 (Homicide Detective Chief Inspector John McGregor, now a retired Lake Macquarie local, convicted six inmates of his murder); Richard Lynott died from AIDS in 1996; Roy Pollitt escaped from jail again and in 1984 was hired to assassinate a Melbourne drug supplier, however he identified the wrong target and shot dead an innocent man. He was convicted of murder and was ultimately deported to Britain in 2018 following his release from jail.

I have no idea what became of Sutton, Owens or Humphreys. I would be curious to know what became of Willy Sutton.

IN THE NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: