Yandina Five member Joshua Carew relishes freedom, describing month of hell in solitary

A MEMBER of the "Yandina Five", freed on bail, describes solitary confinement at Woodford prison as "overwhelming".

Yandina Five member freed

A MEMBER of the "Yandina Five" has told of the "overwhelming" experience of solitary confinement at Woodford prison after a Supreme Court Judge freed him on bail.

Joshua Carew, who spent a month in lockdown after his arrest over a gathering at the Yandina pub, said inmates of "The Cage" kept each other sane by reading The Courier-Mail out loud every day and taking medication so they could sleep at night.

"You spend the whole day lying at your door talking through a vent to people in the cell next to you," he said.

"You don't actually see them but all of a sudden you've got this bond with the person because he's the only thing keeping you sane.

"It just becomes overwhelming."

He said the experience of being outside in open space was now "surreal".

The Yandina Five, two of whom remain in solitary under new prison regulations targeting bikies, are a test case for the LNP's new anti-association laws banning three or more criminal organisation "participants" from gathering in public.

Judge John Byrne, who overturned a magistrate's bail refusal, said Carew's "anxiety not to return to solitary confinement is a substantial incentive not to commit offences" while awaiting trial.

Premier Campbell Newman welcomed the decision, saying "the bailing of this individual demonstrates that the system works ... we have tough laws that are being administered by the judiciary in an independent way".

Mr Newman also revealed yesterday the Government planned to scrap the anti-bikie laws after three years.

"Ultimately in less than three years time these laws can disappear from the statute books in Queensland because that's the intention of the Government," he said.

"I didn't particularly want to see these laws implemented, but the sooner we can get rid of them the better. It starts by seeing us get rid of the gangs."

Justice Byrne noted Carew faced separate drug trafficking charges over an alleged Rebels amphetamines ring but found the prosecution case that he was participating in a criminal organisation by visiting a pub with bikies was "not assured of success".

"At the hotel, (Carew) engaged socially with (co-accused and Rebels members) Paul Lansdowne and Steven Smith," he wrote.

"Those men - one, an employer; the other, a brother-in-law - have significant, personal connections with (Carew) that are unrelated to their Rebels membership."

Carew told The Courier-Mail of fitful nights trying to sleep under bright 24-hour lights and in "freezing" air-conditioning, and of a green ant infested cell that left him covered in welts.

The judge found Carew, who claims never to have been a Rebel, was not an "unacceptable risk" of reoffending and set him free.

He will rule on Lansdowne's last ditch bid for bail today.