COP THIS!

I haven’t had a stupid quote of the week for some time but I have to grant one to a Victorian policeman today.

As you may have heard on the news four men have escaped from Victorian prisons in the past four days.

One is a convicted murderer named Trevor Andrew Bransgrove. He apparently wandered away from a shop in Ballarat while on rehabilitation release. His escort just didn’t notice he’d gone.

I’ll get back to big questions about Bransgrove’s case in a minute but getting back to the policeman’s quote of the week.

Acting Senior Sergeant Rhys Livingstone is quoted as saying that the escape of four prisoners in four days does not necessarily point to problems with security in prisons.

He is quoted as saying that it is “unusual” and might be “just bad luck”. D-oh!!

Two men escaped from a minimum security jail inn Gippsland Monday night and a 27-year-old man missed muster at a medium security prison at Dhurringile, north of Melbourne, over the weekend.

But it is the Bransgrove case that causes the most concern. Police have warned that he is dangerous. So why was he out on casual day leave only seven years into a fourteen-year jail sentence for murder?

The earliest he could be released is March 2006. What was he doing out shopping this week. This man was convicted of murder after he slashed someone’s throat.

And he was on leave. How can a prisoner be out on day release, well before his parole time, if police still believe he is dangerous?

And you have to feel sympathy for frustrated Police who virtually say they have back-to-back jobs. They have to investigate killers and get them into court. Get them convicted. And now they are spending heaps of man-hours chasing escapees.

They say it doesn’t make sense. Can’t disagree with them.

Wednesday, September 3, 2003

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2002