Bradley Silvester (above), 35, is the only one of ten prisoners who has not been recaptured
Inmates used stolen angle grinders to break into a female prison unit during a 12-hour riot at a Western Australian jail.
Nine of the 10 men who escaped from Greenough Regional Prison in the state’s Mid-West on Tuesday have been caught, but Bradley Silvester, 35, remains at large.
Prison Officers’ Union acting secretary Paul Ledingham revealed details of the riot and subsequent escape on Wednesday night.
‘There were bricks, debris. My understanding is prisoners got access to maintenance equipment and angle grinders,’ he said, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
‘They were essentially looking to get into unit four, which is the female unit, and using cordless angle grinders to do so, and they did so successfully.’
Mr Ledingham wouldn’t confirm if any female inmates had been assaulted, but speculated there were ‘things going on’.
‘If you’ve got riotous behaviour that goes for 10 to 12 hours in a prison under the cover of darkness where males and females are concerned, I think anyone’s imagination may lead them to think that there were things going on,’ he said.
Inmates used stolen angle grinders to break into a female prison unit during the 12-hour riot
Mr Ledingham said the riot and was finally contained early on Wednesday.
‘It’s utter devastation,’ Mr Ledingham said.
‘We’ve seen staff control rooms – supposedly secure areas for staff – smashed, destroyed and in one case burnt, fully burnt out.’
Premier Mark McGowan, who toured the trashed facility, said some of the women participated in the riot and their unit now appeared uninhabitable.
‘Somehow this group mentality took hold,’ he said.
Power tools were used to cut a lock off an inner fence and the escapees then used a ladder to scale the outer fence.
Devon Comeagain (left), 23, was recaptured at a house in Greenough area. Alan McDonald (right), 28, was located at a house in Rangeway,
‘They were organised,’ Mr McGowan said. ‘It looked like a war zone in there.’
He said the damage bill will be in the millions.
Mr McGowan said the lives of some prisoners were at risk from fire and smoke during the riot.
Three guards were pepper-sprayed and molotov cocktails were thrown.
Prison officers are believed to have lost control when they tried to extinguish a cell fire that was sparked as a diversion. Other fires were then lit.
Mr Ledingham said state budget pressures had led to understaffing at WA jails, with regional facilities among the worst affected.
He called on the state government to ‘immediately’ recruit more staff, saying most WA prisons were ‘a powder-keg … ready to explode’.
Bradley Silvester (above), 35, is still on the run after a mass breakout on Tuesday
‘According to our members, this has been brewing for some time,’ Mr Ledingham said.
Mr McGowan said there had been no indication of rising unrest among the inmates but there would now be ‘heightened monitoring’ at WA prisons.
The CPSU said senior Corrective Services executives had been warned the situation across all WA prisons was ‘dire’ including treatment courses not being run and prisoners spending large amounts of time in cells.
An extra 150 officers were sent to Geraldton to help search for the escapees.
Darryl Councillor, 18, handed himself at Geraldton police station at 1.00pm on Wednesday
Residents and drivers were warned to not approach them and urged to lock their doors and windows.
The jail holds remand prisoners under maximum security while other inmates are kept in medium and minimum security sections.
Seven escapees were found in the area before Brendan Bartley, 22, and 18-year-old Darryl Councillor handed themselves in to local police.
The escapees will be moved to Hakea remand prison in Perth, Mr McGowan said.
Brendan Bartley, 22, handed himself at Geraldton police station at 1.00pm on Wednesday