Bernie, as always, brilliant article. Take care. Tilly

very informative more on this type of subject would be appreciated

Fantastic article. One point that interests me is how Cox came to be recaptured. Was he sold out by Denning at this stage or was Denning being followed or were there other informants involved? In the article Bernie says Denning accomplished what the police force could not. What really happened here?

Karl

I am a little disturbed by the tone of this article. The author speaks of Denning being "rewarded for his treachery" and still sounds like a criminal.

Whilst certainly criminals have the right to speak and to be allowed to lead a normal life once they have served their time, it seems wrong for them to be permitted to do so on this website if they speak of the criminal actions of their one time fellow inmates with seeming pride, whilst disparaging Denning for doing the right thing for once and telling the truth to authorities.

There is no question that anyone injured, criminal or otherwise should receive immediate medical attention - however, the prisoners who used the prison guard as a human shield are scum who by firing at officers and threating people's lives certainly deserved to be in prison for their entire life and certainly should be denied freedoms which may place officers and the community at risk by potentially allowing them to escape.

The fact Katingal was never gazetted is certainly bad, but essentially it's a unfortunate technicality that allowed a criminal to escape the consequences of his actions. That said, I actually support Russell Cox being granted his freedom if he has changed, is contrite and is now a well behaved citizen.

IMHO no-one should be released prior to the end of their sentence if they have not written an apology to thier victims or victim's families and are contrite. If they don't want to genuinely do this, then it seems to me they do not deserve to leave jail early and should stay in until the last possible moment.

Criminals should be ashamed of their criminal past - not celebrating it. The fact Denning chose to lift the lid on his fellow criminal's wrong doing is a very good thing, even if it offends criminals's warped sense of morality.

Bob,

I noticed that comment too, and in some respects had the same reaction. But that is one of the things that gives Bernie's writing interest - he doesn't have a conventional framework. I think people can work that out for themselves, as your comment demonstrates. It's not reason to censor or edit Bernie's comments. I'd be interested to hear what he has to say about your post.

Graham Young
Editor

Karl, Bob and Graham, There appears to be some controversy concerning my recent article about Russell Cox. First of all Bob, I am not a criminal – I WAS A CRIMINAL – I am not now. There is a distinction. If that distinction does not fit with society’s view then I would suggest that the term criminal should also apply to Neslon Mandella, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (the 1971 Nobel Literature prize winner) Oscar Wilde and Henry Lawson who all served time in various prisons for criminal offences. The term ‘criminal’ could also apply to Robyn Kina, Kelvin Condren (Qld) Ziggy Pohl, Tim Anderson, Douglas Rendall (NSW) Edward Splatt (South Australia) Lindy Chamberlain (Northern Territory) The Mickelburg brothers (WA) Arthur Thomas (New Zealand) and not to forget Timothy Evans who was hanged as a criminal in 1950. Subsequent Royal Commissions found them to all be innocent but they still served time (in some cases over 10 years) as criminals and in the ccase of Evans he was killed by the judicial system. It is just a small point Bob. No offence intended. I was a criminal. I am no longer a criminal.

I believe Russell Cox has paid his debt to society over and above what was prescribed by law. I say that simply because I saw some the punishment that was meted out to him. He and another prisoner were dragged to a cell and left to die at Long Bay. Only the threat of a full-scale riot forced authorities to get them medical treatment. It is not conjecture on my part. I was there when it happened.

I was also at Grafton Jail during the latter part of 1975 when Cox and Motric were sent there for punishment after the shoot-out at Long Bay. I saw Cox baton-whipped unconscious by Grafton prison guards for having a button undone. He and Motric also suffered the ‘reception biff’ that existed at Grafton jail from 1943-76 as an introduction to those prisoners who were sent there for punishment. He was stripped naked and baton-whipped to a state of semi-consciousness. The floggings and baton-whippings continued for the whole time Cox and Motric were at Grafton until they were transferred into Katingal.

If my observations of the brutality inflicted at Grafton Jail are offensive then I suggest a perusal of the transcripts of the NSW Royal Commission into Prisons would be in order. Not only was evidence given as to the brutality inflicted upon Cox and Mortic but the NSW Department of Corrective Services also admitted that such practices had been in existence as unofficial policy from 1943 until 1976. The evidence of ex-Grafton prison warder, John Pettit, also described the violence and brutality inflicted upon prisoners like Cox and Motric. Grafton was indeed the Alcatraz of the NSW prison system during that time and the public was blissfully unaware of what was occurring inside the prison. I think that both men certainly suffered the consequences of their actions over and above that prescribed by law.

Cox was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘shooting to avoid lawful apprehension’. No life was lost and one of the prison guards involved in that shootout, Steven Tandy, has recently made a public statement that he holds no animosity towards Cox and in actual fact recommended and fully supported Cox’s release on parole. And Tandy was the victim.

When I compare Cox’s case to other cases, like the Bill D’Arcy case in Queensland where there were child victims that have been scarred for their entire lives after sustained sexual abuse, I find it a little difficult to compare the sentence of 10 years and six months given to D’Arcy and the life sentence imposed on Cox. D’Arcy will serve the minimum time in relative comfort inside the Qld prison system while Cox has served nearly 3 decades in prison or as a fugitive. I do not envision any of D’Arcy’s victims advocating his release on parole.

I am not an advocate for Russell Cox nor am I glorifying his criminal actions. I am just reporting the other side of the story that will never appear in the mainstream media. It was always my view that OnlineOpinion served as a vehicle to ventilate controversial issues that the mainstream media failed to report. I believe that is one of the reasons the 2004 Queensland Media Awards selected one of my articles published/posted at OnlineOpinion for the best feature posted in the electronic media. There are people in the community who want to know what is the news behind the news. The news that mainstream media cannot (or will not) supply. I try to accommodate those requests at OnlineOpinion.

I would now like to address the issues that Karl, Bob and Graham refer to. To understand my use of “Denning was rewarded for his treachery” I have to relate the untold story of Raymond John Denning so that phrase can be placed in its right perspective. Denning was a self-centred mercenary character whose whole world revolved around Raymond John Denning. He did not become a supergrass because he was atoning for his sins or he had some ultraistic sense of helping society. He told stories to maximise his own position financially and to gain freedom for killing a prison guard at Parramatta Jail during an escape attempt in 1974. There is also evidence to suggest that NSW police and prison authorities may have colluded to allow Denning to escape from Goulburn Jail in 1988 for the sole purpose of recapturing Cox but that link in the Denning saga has never been officially substantiated. What Minister of the Crown of Police Commissioner could publicly admit to collusion by supping with the devil and allowing a lifer to escape from prison?

The facts, as I know them, are these: during 1986-87 Denning was involved in a conspiracy orchestrated from within Parklea Prison to import heroin from Hong Kong. Denning recruited two couriers. The couriers were apprehended at Hong Kong airport by Hong Kong and Australian Federal Police. They were detained for 72 hours in which time they informed authorities of other Australians, both prisoners and non-prisoners, who were involved in the conspiracy and then they were allowed to leave Hong Kong and return to Australia. NSW State and Federal Police as well as NSW prison authorities were aware of the heroin import conspiracy but allowed one of the couriers to continue visiting Denning in prison when she returned to Australia. She told Denning what had happened. Denning feared for his life if any of his co-conspirators found out what had happened during the police interviews in Hong Kong. Then a series of mysterious circumstances occurred.

Denning’s prison classification was down-graded and he was transferred to the less secure Bathurst Jail at a time when the then Minister was posturing in the media that men like Denning would serve out their entire life sentences. In Denning’s case Ministerial confirmation was required for any lessening of his classification. A short time later he was transferred to the minimum-security section of Goulburn Jail and from there he escaped in July 1988. Eight days later he reunited with Cox and the pair were recaptured at the Doncaster shopping centre.

In 1989 Denning became a supergrass against Tim Anderson over the Hilton Bombing case. An application was made on his behalf by two high ranking NSW Police Officers for the $250 000 reward in relation to the Hilton Bombing. The then Qld Attorney-General, Dean Wells, was also petitioned by the same two NSW Police officers (both of whom left the Police Force as a result of the 1995 NSW Wood Royal Commission into Police Corruption) for indemnities for Denning for all crimes he had committed in Queensland which included a bank robbery at Zillmere he confessed to committing after the 1988 Goulburn escape. The then Attorney-General, Dean Wells, granted Denning unlimited indemnity and immunity for all crimes he had committed in Queensland.

In December 1990 I participated in a 2UE radio talk-back program with Kathryn Greiner (the then NSW Premier’s wife) and trenchantly criticised the rewarding of criminal/prisoner informers. I outlined three cases where the rewarding of criminal informers had had dire consequences for the community. One of the cases was that of Raymong John Denning.

At the time of that interview I was unaware that Denning’s application for the Hilton Bombing reward was en train to the NSW Rewards Evaluation Committee. A short time after the program the then NSW Premier, Nick Greiner, publicly stated that Denning would not receive any reward from his government.

It was after Denning’s reward application had been torpedoed in 1991 that I was arrested, extradited to Queensland and wrongfully imprisoned for a $690 000 Brambles armoured van robbery that carried four consecutive terms of life imprisonment upon conviction.

Although I was innocent a Sydney detective verballed me in a Queensland court by stating that I had confessed to the robbery. I remained in a Queensland prison for just under one year before Queensland police arrested two men who confessed to the crimes I had been wrongfully extradited and imprisoned for. A Queensland Supreme Court judge ordered my immediate release and I petitioned both the NSW and Queensland governments for compensation for the wrongful extradition and imprisonment. I found myself in a catch-22 situation. The NSW government blamed the Queensland for my wrongful imprisonment and the Queensland government blamed NSW. Neither government accepted responsibility.

Needless to say I was not compensated by either government and the loss of my house, nearly a year imprisonment in another State and the eventual collapse of my marriage is what could be termed collateral damage in the Denning-Cox saga because I had the temerity, as a "criminal", to speak out about things the general public are blissfully unaware.

When I said 'Denning was rewarded for his treachery’ that is exactly what occurred and quite a number of innocent people suffered as a consequence including Tim Anderson who was wrongfully imprisoned over the Hilton Bombing.

I sincerely hope I have set the record straight about the choice of phrases in my articles. Thank you Karl, Bob and Graham for your views. They are appreciated. Bernie Matthews.

thanks for your reply Bernie -you are quite correct about the fact you are no longer a criminal and I apologise for my poor choice of words.

I do find any descriptions of what occurred at Grafton Jail offensive, but not because I disbelieve them, but because I do. What happened there was disturbing and wrong - prison officers are not above the law and should suffer the same consequences as any other person who breaks the law, although I know its hard to do this.

I don't know how effective the official visitor programs are, but I do think that something along those lines is needed for the police as well so that a independent 3rd party could enter police stations at any time, see any record, sit in on any interview, etc, so that police are on notice that their is a chance wrong doing will be detected. I also believe the law should be changed so that all rumours of wrong doing by police must be reported by any police aware of them. During the Police Royal Commission and many PIC investigations in NSW, it was revealed time and time again that police knew of wrong doing by others but just did nothing and that is how it breeds and flourishes.

However, i do disagree with you on the shooting charge -no life was lost, but that was just luck and bad shooting on the part of the shooter. I still believes that sort of thing deserves a very long sentence, but if the victim is speaking up for Cox and Cox has changed his formerly wicked ways I wish him well on his release.

I believe prisoners should be treated as human beings as IMHO, its the deprivation of liberty that is the punishment and they not be treated badly. I also fully support funding for education for prisoners and all the counselling/support needed to help them make it back into society.

I also believe in compensation for those wrongly jailed to which you would be entitled.

Dear Ed and Bernie

It's a bit to easy to read Bernie's article and then infer that because he is a criminal it would be preferable that he was not so subjective and should engage in a more scholarly and scientific writing style. Bernie's critical review is a bottom up understanding of what happened to Russell Cox. At no stage does Bernie argue that he or Cox represented the interests of mainstream society. However it is hard to ignore the notion that if people are released or indeed escape prison in a worse psychological/physical condition than when they arrived then it is likely that no one benefits.

The only issues that I would pick Bernie up on are these:

I was a detective in the NSW Police and worked on attempting to recapture Cox. We did not give him the title of 'Mad Dog'. What is more it was difficult to get anyone to say a bad word about him. The normal flow of information from the criminal community was less than a trickle. We also knew a great deal about his private affairs and although some may disagree those who were very close to him would realise that there are some very personal details regarding Cox that have never been released to the media or public. We were also aware of how quaint it was for some of the more 'progressive' middle class activists of that time to assist Cox and even Denning with the help of a Sky Blue or a Blue Sky (SIC).

The other issue is this. Denying medical assistance to wounded inmates who attempted to escape is bad common sense from any perspective. But, it is not the low levelled functionaries and caretakers who shape the system or the values of those who are in the system, whether this be inmates or officers.

It is almost impossible to reform a criminal justice system in which class bias is such a fundamental component. The person who initiated the concept of Katingal and the politicians who at an arms length allowed it to be built do not even rate a mention in Bernie’s article. For years now these people have sat back whilst the public spotlight is constantly maintained on the conflict between inmates and officers, crims and cops, rule breakers and rule enforcers.

In order to make a difference we need to place the spotlight back onto the rule makers who shape our society, our criminal justice system and the values of the people within this system.

Never the less none of this will be possible unless people like Bernie continue to critically expose the broader system for the sham that it is. Good on you Bernie.

Mick

Thank goodness for Bernie Matthews. He knows prisons as well as the laughably called "justice system" well. The tragedy is that despite Royal Commissions and inquires Australian prisons are just as monstrous as they were in the past. In fact with mandatory sentencing and an almost universal "law and order" approach by all political parties expect conditions to get worse. We need people like Matthews not only to deal with past abuses but also to deal with ones future because nobody else in the media really seems to care about these matters.

Bob, I am a little disturbed by the tone of your posting... it might interest you to know that one of the many human rights issues Mr Matthews has highlighted in his lengthy and prolific career as a journalist is freedom of speech for victims of the 'justice' system. It isn't really a surprise that a country founded on a penal colony has not afforded Australians a constitutional right to freedom of speech.

An implied right to freedom of speech had to be fought for in a court of law, as did prisoners right to voice what was happening to them, when Mr Matthews' case was heard before the Australian Press Council in 1978 for a story he wrote revealing corruption in the NSW police force.

Australia helped to develop the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the United Nations and Article 19 promotes the endorsement of free speech, for everyone, whilst article 18 endorses the right to free thought.

If people like Deborah Locke and Bernie Matthews and Jockey Smith had not pursued their 'implied right' to free speech there could never have been the reforms to the NSW police force that were so necessary.

Free speech isn't always popular, but it is always essential to the advancement of transparency and accountability in society.

Good grief Bernie, you are now placing yourself in the same sentence as Mandella.
Your prose is dripping with reverence for Cox, placing a "I'm not an advocate for Cox" in a postscript does not negative that. You state that you saw the punishment metered out to Cox in prison. Have you witnessed the trauma and suffering metered out to his victims, bank tellers and the like? Yet after suffering this treatment Cox still continued to commit serious violent crime, he had a choice his victims didn't.
He is a grub, nothing more and nothing less.
Give my regards to Nelson when next you meet.

Paul Huxtable

Hi PFH.

It was fairly plain to me that the reference to various people was merely to illustrate that people who have been in gaol for various reasons don't necessarily remain criminals forever.

Your interpretation of that text would infer a bias against former prisoners and perhaps an inability to conceptualize non-recidivism, and I am sure that couldn't be the case?

Mandella for example was not considered a hero by all people[despite the unfairness of that] or he would never have been put in gaol. Similarly, in corrupt justice systems, regardless of whether they are biased against people for race or for poverty[which is attributed as the main cause of offending]or any other reason, there are people who are gaoled unfairly, which Bernie Matthews was, 2 times and in my view whilst the actions of offenders such as Cox are definitely wrong, violent and frightening - in a system which allows the verballing of innocent men to meet their own corrupt and greedy means, people like that do take on a stereotypical Australian anit-hero status by them going against that corrupt system.

The reason there are set periods for sentencing is because in their infinite wisdom judges sincerely believe in the human spirit's capacity to change and to learn right from wrong. I would like to highlight that the instance of recidivism of sex offenders is far higher than the incidence of recidivism of monetary crime.

Their are a lot of 'victims'in life, but I certainly wouldn't rank bank tellers as being amongst the worst done by, for the crime of armed robberies to warrant more than say sex offences[and this is not taken lightly with 2 members of my family having been robbed whilst being in bank employment and I have also experienced being a 'victim' in an armed robbery].

In my personal experience however, family violence and sex offences are far more prevalent and damaging in the long term and it is a shame people do not feel quite so damning about the perpetrators of crimes against women, children and the rape of young offenders in gaol.

Bernie it was an interesting article on Russell Cox as we really only get to hear what the media want us the public to know,but listening from your side of the fence is informative.

I have read a few of your articles and have found them to be interesting,straight to the point and some controversial.

You sound very intelligent and write excellent stories did you learn this skill whilst in jail, or after you were released.

Lea

Good article, Bernie. Good on you brother.

Dear Paul Huxtable.

My view of the criminal justice system is exactly that- it is a CRIMINAL system- and so saying, I fully support Bernie's use of the name Nelson Mendela- for just as the South African system was criminal, so too is the NSW criminal 'justice' system, and Australia's.

I welcome the day that police officers such as yourself, public prosecutors, and Judges will come out and tell the truth about the criminal underclass of this country- and that truth is that for many prisoners, they are a product of the system.

Near on 40% of all of our prisoners- and that would be a higher percentage of the dangerous and recidivist ones- emerge from the child 'welfare' system. That is, they were in the care of the State and/ or churches as children- in its ophanages, institutions or foster care systems. (only 0.2% of the population experiences such 'care')

Your justice system only works on retrospectivity (prosecution after the crime) and sees has absolutly nothing to say about the system from whence most of the people who keep you all 'gainfully' employed arise.

Nor until recently (Wood Royal Commission) did your collective sense of 'justice' even seek to give what little protection it now offers- to the children who are being abused in the child welfare system by your public service/ crown employee colleagues.

Your contention that Cox is nothing more than a grot may be correct, but the likelyhood is that he, and many of his fellow inmates are grots produced by the system that will not stop manufacturing such people.

Grots beget grots I guess!

And NSW being a penal colony, it has learnt how to profitably manufacture the grots it requires to keep so many gainfully employed in our criminal justice system from the Judges down.

It would be nice to see you extend your desire to 'protect the community' into alerting the public about where most of our societies boogeymen come from- rather then purpetuating a system that keeps the public ill-informed, and suffering!

Keep up the good works Mr. Bernie Matthews- you are overturning the rocks and forcing us to watch the crawly little things scurry back into the darkness where they prefer to hide.

John Murray

Hi Bernie,

First time reader doing some research and i came accross this artical which i found very interesting as i did hear a bit about the Russell Cox recapture in the 80's and the Denning turned informant debarcle. I agree and have heard of some of the treatment prisoners get inside and some of it is horrifying to hear but also have heard what some of these criminals have done to their victims which is also quite bad. Your mention of Nelson Mandela brought back some memories of a parole hearing i attended over 6 years ago which was not looking too promising, 2 comments were made from this inmate who was representing himself at the hearing. 'How can you say i wont make it on the outside after all these years when Nelson Mandela was released after so many years and is now running a country'...the 2nd comment that i will never forget was 'I've had enough of this life, ive seen murderers and child molestors come in and get out before me'. That will always stick in my mind and will always confirm to me that the justice system is backward in this country when a bank robber is doing more time than child molestors and murderers. Although i'm not saying it is right what bank robbers do, it definitely is but if you gave me a choice, i'd rather work in a bank and hand over their cash to someone with a balaclava on than my young daughter or son being molested. They are the real grots in the system and maybe we should put a bit more focus on keeping them locked up forever.

Michael Carrion

Bernie's article accurately describes the Katigal disaster. The real tragedy is that many of our curent prisons are just as bad where murder and suicide are rife and solitary confinement substitutes for innovative and humane programs. The Katingal; legacy is alive and well today and anyone who says it isn't has no idea on the reality of life in contemporary Australian prisons.