Abbott Seized In Laundromat
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday May 4, 1998
Australia's most wanted man, the jail escapee Brendon Abbott, was carrying guns, wigs for disguises, $22,000 and a laptop computer to forge drivers' licences when he was arrested in Darwin at the weekend.
After six months on the run around Australia, Abbott was seized by seven armed police from the Territory Response Group as he returned to a laundromat to collect his washing at 5.10 pm on Saturday. He will appear in Darwin Magistrates Court tomorrow at 10 am, where Queensland police will try to have him extradited following his escape from Sir David Longland prison.
Darwin police also believe they are on the verge of catching Abbott's accomplice, 20-year-old Brendon Berichon, who is wanted for shooting two Victorian police officers last month.
Police have received several unconfirmed sightings of Berichon and his travelling companion, a Thai woman known as Michelle. They believe the couple are still in Darwin and are close to being captured.
There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to Berichon's capture.
In a press statement issued last night by Abbott's solicitor, Mr Chris Nyst, he claimed he was being made a political scapegoat.
"I'll cop what's coming to me," he said. "They had me in solitary for 18 months last time. I just hope that they don't go over the top this time."
Speculation that he was plotting to assassinate the Queensland Corrective Services Minister, Mr Russell Cooper, was rubbish, he said.
"I've never even thought of killing Cooper or anyone else," he said. "That sort of thing is just not my go."
The acting police commander, Mr Gary Manison, said Abbott arrived in the Northern Territory from Queensland on Friday in a green Toyota LandCruiser, believed to have been stolen in Western Australia a year ago and hidden away to throw police off the track.
The car contained $22,000 cash, a revolver, a large amount of high-powered ammunition, four wigs, some make-up and a small quantity of marijuana, police said. It had been fitted with radios and scanners to monitor police frequencies. Abbott made no attempt to resist arrest when he was captured. Police had seen him enter a room at the inner-city Top End Hotel, owned by the media identity Mike Willesee, half an hour earlier.
Abbott drove to some nearby shops, where he dropped a load of washing into a laundromat and bought a pizza. As he returned to pick up the washing, police swooped on him and caught him "totally unawares".
Mr Manison said: "He was very passive, he obeyed all directions, he gave his name when asked . . . and he was totally cooperative."
Abbott was in a state of shock and he "certainly wasn't expecting to be apprehended in Darwin", he said.
Mr Manison said Berichon was a known drug user with a history of erratic behaviour. He was armed and dangerous and it was difficult to pinpoint his next move. Exits out of Darwin have been sealed off by police roadblocks, while taxis, buses, hotels and airline companies have been instructed to look out for Berichon.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
