Newcastle hunt for escaper

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 1

Newcastle hunt for escaper

NZPA Sydney Judith Garrett, who has escaped again from an Australian jail, may have gone to ground in the Newcastle area, about 160 km north of Sydney. The police said yesterday that their search would concentrate on the area.

Garrett, a former Christchurch striptease performer serving a life sentence for murder, was described by a judge at her trial four years ago as a callous killer.

She was captured at Newcastle after her last escape. Garrett, aged 23, and three other women escaped from the Mulawa Detention Centre at Silverwater, in Sydney’s western suburbs, on Monday. Their escape has resulted in a prison officers ‘ being charged with neglect in the performance of her duty. Garrett was serving a term for beating a woman to death in a jewellery store robbery and a term for escaping from custody. The police warned that the four escapers were dangerous and were to be approached with caution. In Monday’s escape the women cut through bars, climbed on a roof, and jumped three metres to the ground before walking out through the front gate to a waiting car, driven by a' man in his late 30s.