| Girlfriend of Goulburn prison escapee pleads guilty to helping him flee |
“Well I got my bubba back. Broke out of jail; and I picked him up”.
These were the 15 words, hastily scrawled in a personal notebook, that Rebecca Watts had used to sum up the whirlwind that had been the last day and a half of her life.
Thirty-six hours earlier, on the morning of September 30, she had been camped out the front of Goulburn Correctional Centre in a black Holden Commodore, waiting for her boyfriend Beau Wiles to break out of the prison’s minimum security wing.
The self-described ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ style duo had planned the escape days earlier and for all intents and purposes, it went according to plan.
Using a mobile phone he had apparently acquired in prison, Wiles told Watts to be waiting with a car in Maud Street, immediately west of the jail.
So, following his orders, Watts was in position when Wiles emerged outside the prison walls at 9.53am, having gotten away from a work area undetected and scaled the perimeter fence.
Guards didn’t discover Wiles missing until 10.15am, by which time he, Watts and the Commodore’s driver were barreling along the Hume Highway, heading for the Illawarra.
Wiles’ escape was plastered all over the media just hours later, prompting Watts to send her mother a text message at 4pm that afternoon saying she wasn’t with him and thought he may have been on his way to Canberra.
Her mother, not believing Watts, urged her to turn herself in, but to no avail.
Watts later told police she and Wiles had stayed at a Koonawarra house that night, and were on their way to Wiles’ father’s house in North Wollongong when their vehicle was stopped just off the M1 Motorway on Five Islands Road at 5.05pm on October 1.
Police allege Wiles gave a fake name when asked his identity, even though officers said they immediately recognised him.
A search of Watts’ handbag uncovered the notebook containing the handwritten note.
Wiles and Watts were arrested, charged and remanded in custody.
During an interview with police, Watts said she was aware what she did was wrong but had been blinded by love, describing them as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
Watts pleaded guilty to charges of aiding an inmate to escape and harbouring an escaped criminal in court on Wednesday, as well as a host of unrelated dishonesty and stealing offences.
Her matters will remain in the Local Court, meaning any jail sentence will be two years or less.
However, the Officer of the Director of Public Prosecutions has elected to take control of Wiles’ case and move it to the NSW District Court, meaning he faces up to 10 years’ behind bars.
Watts will face court on October 23 for sentencing, while Wiles’ matter will be mentioned again on December 9, when he is expect to plead guilty.
Illawarra Mercury
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