Brenden Abbott
| Brenden James Abbott | |
|---|---|
Brenden James Abbott
|
|
| Born |
Brenden James Abbott 8 May 1962 |
| Other names | The Postcard Bandit |
| Occupation | bank robber |
| Criminal penalty | 25 years imprisonment (13 years non-parole period) |
| Criminal status | Remanded in Custody |
| Conviction(s) | Bank robbery, Prison escape |
Brenden James Abbott (born 8 May 1962) is a convicted Australian bank robber. He is reported to have stolen and hidden millions of dollars, and was dubbed "the postcard bandit" by police seeking media coverage.
Abbott has been imprisoned in Woodford Correctional Centre and Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, and held in both mainstream and Supermax conditions. He was moved to Brisbane Correctional Centre in August 2011, and is detained under severe Supermax-style conditions. Though scheduled for release in 2020, he faces further charges in two other states.
A film about Abbott, The Postcard Bandit, was made in 2003.
A former ward of the state of Western Australia, Abbott continues to suffer anxiety and related health disorders, as noted in a semi-biographical work, Australian Outlaw, by Derek Pedley. As a hearing-impaired 12-year-old in November 1974, he was maltreated at Hillston Boys Home. Abbott attended Eastern Hills High School in Mt Helena and was considered an average to good student. His watercolour "Little Boy Blue" was painted after the November 2009 national apology to Forgotten Australians.
The biography also mentions his affliction with chronic suppurative otitis media, a painful, recurrent middle-ear disease prevalent in Western Australia's north-west,. From infancy Abbott had bilateral perforated ear drums for which limited medical and rehabilitation services were available.
Abbott escaped from jail twice, and also fled from police during questioning at the Nollamara police station in 1986. Uncharacteristically, his escape from Sir David Longland Prison at Wacol in November 1997 involved actual force rather than an implied threat of force. In that instance Brendon Berichon, a young former SDL inmate, fired warning shots overhead from the outside of the fence. The offenders alleged that this occurred in panic, when the three escapees' escape plan went awry.
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