A convicted killer escaped from the maximum-security wing of a prison by using a set keys he’d been given to play with – but the government took nine months to tell the public.
Malcolm Morton, 26, who stabbed his uncle to death when he was 14, managed to escape from the jail in the Northern Territory town of Alice Springs in April 2017.
Morton escaped during a regular visit to a mental health specialist within the prison complex after a health department worker gave him a set of keys to ‘play with’, Sky News reported.
He was visiting the specialist in a separate building to where he was normally incarcerated. After using the keys to escape that building, he accessed a gate next to a car park.
Malcolm Morton, who stabbed his uncle to death aged 14, escaped from Alice Springs jail in April 2017
The Aboriginal prisoner escaped during a visit to this mental health facility within the prison
Morton, a diabetic Aboriginal man with an intellectual disability, also stole a car with those keys.
The dangerous prisoner crashed that vehicle and was recaptured 30 minutes later.
Two Department of Health public servants resigned over the escape while Northern Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles ordered a critical incident review.
Morton had escaped from a Secure Care Facility run by the Department of Health.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner confirmed the story and said it was unacceptable for the government to have withheld that information from the public for nine months.
Malcolm Morton, who has an intellectual disability, is housed in the secure wing of the prison
‘The public should have been made aware of this incident as soon as possible. This didn’t happen and that’s not good enough,’ he said in a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.
‘We have asked that protocols about informing the public be improved to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
‘The public should expect to be notified when these sorts of incidents occur.’
A month before Morton’s escape, Mr Gunner taunted the previous Country Liberal government for presiding over the escape of convicted killer and rapist Edward Horrell from an Arnhem Land work camp in 2015.
‘We have not had a situation under Labor where an axe-murdering rapist has been on the loose,’ he told reporters in March 2017.
Northern Territory Opposition Leader Gary Higgins said the government had engaged in a cover-up about a dangerous killer being on the loose.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner said it was ‘not good enough’ how it took nine months for the public to be informed
‘The question must be asked, why did the Labor government not tell Territorians and the media about the incident in April 2017?,’ Mr Higgins said on Wednesday.
‘Despite ordering a “critical incident review”, this government seemingly did what it could to conceal the issue and it is time for the minister responsible to explain herself and apologise to Territorians.’
Alice Springs Correctional Centre general manager Bill Yan said Morton was a high-maintenance prisoner who had special dietary requirements due to his diabetes.
‘His management is extremely complex. We have a specific management plan for Malcolm,’ he told Sky News.
‘His meals are individually cooked to make sure he’s not getting anything that may upset his blood sugar levels.’
Morton had been housed in a special cell in Alice Springs since 2009 because there are no other dedicated prisons in the Northern Territory for the mentally impaired.
In 2016, former Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs condemned the treatment of Morton, and 10 other intellectually disabled prisoners in the Northern Territory, who had been forcibly restrained.