A 28-year-old man serving a 12-year jail sentence for armed robbery has escaped from Goulburn prison in the New South Wales southern tablelands using a pillow and a rope made of bedsheets.
Police are now searching for Stephen Jamieson, who was last seen near the correctional centre shortly before 1pm on Tuesday afternoon wearing prison greens.
It is the second escape for Jamieson, who also absconded from prison while serving a prior sentence, corrective services commissioner Peter Severin told media.
Jamieson was being held in a segregated unit with a small yard in the maximum security part of the Goulburn correctional centre.
He cut through part of a metal gate, tied sheets together as a rope to swing over a wall, and strapped a pillow to his stomach to get over the razor wire, according to corrective services.
Jamieson is also under investigation for a partially dug cavity found in a prison workshop last month.
“This is a very serious incident that should not have happened,” said Severin.
“New South Wales’s prisons are very secure, and last year saw the smallest number of escapes in at least 30 years. Those escapes were all from minimum security.”
An independent security review of the prison is now under way, in addition to an investigation into Jamieson’s escape.
Police have urged the public to call 000 if they see him and have warned that Jamieson should not be approached.
Police described him as being of Caucasian appearance, 177cm tall, thin and with fair hair and brown eyes.
