Unwitting mate aided ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ prison escape

Enter Robert Craig Egan, from Figtree, and his black Holden Commodore.

Egan faced Port Kembla Local Court on Wednesday for his role in a September 30 Goulburn prison escape, arranged via contraband mobile phone messages from inmate Beau Wiles (Clyde) to Egan’s friend Rebecca Watts (Bonnie).

The court heard Egan was an unwitting participant, at first, in the plan to collect Wiles, who slipped away from the prison’s minimum-security wing.

Watts would later tell police she waited outside the jail for an hour and a half before sharing the escape plan with Egan. 

The account is at odds with the version Egan told police: that he was unaware of the escape bid until the moment Wiles entered the car and, with Watts, yelled: “go, go, drive!”. 

Egan drove to a bottle shop in Moss Vale, then dropped the fugitive couple at a Galong Crescent, Koonawarra address. 

He then drove home, to be arrested the following day after the self-described Bonnie and Clyde were stopped at Five Islands Road and arrested.

The court heard Egan was embarrassed and remorseful over the incident and had cooperated with police, telling them he “just didn’t know what to do” once the green tracksuited Wiles was in his car.

Egan pleaded has pleaded guilty to aiding an inmate’s escape from lawful custody. 

The matter returns to court December 9.