Prison escapee Darko ‘Dougie’ Desic makes last ditch bid to avoid deportation

Handyman, prison escapee and Northern Beaches icon Darko ‘Dougie’ Desic is making a bid for Australian residency. Here’s why his lawyer believes he should stay.

Prison escapee Darko “Dougie” Desic, who famously gave himself up after 29 years on the run, is fighting deportation to his homeland Yugoslavia on the basis that it no longer exists.

After losing his bid for clemency, the handyman who is being backed by his Northern Beaches community, faces deportation when he is released from jail at the end of the month after serving the rest of his sentence for supplying marijuana in 1992.

His lawyer, Paul McGirr, said they had now engaged an immigration legal specialist to argue that Yugoslavian-born Mr Desic had no “home” to return to because the country no longer existed.

Mr McGirr said they had started the process to apply for a visa for Desic, 64, to stay in Australia where he has the backing of the Avalon community where he lived for most of the time since his escape, doing cash-in-hand jobs mainly as a stone mason.

“He has been a model citizen for the past 29 years,” the lawyer said.

Darko Desic escaped jail 30 years ago, handing himself in to police last year.

“If this bloke doesn’t deserve Australian residency, who else does deserve it?”

“Free Dougie” signs and bumper stickers still adorn the northern beaches suburb.

Desic was convicted on two counts of cultivating a prohibited plant and jailed for three and a half years. In August 1992, he used a hacksaw to cut through his cell bars at Grafton jail before using bolt cutters to get through the prison’s perimeter fence.

In September 2021, after becoming homeless and sleeping in sand dunes, Desic handed himself in to Dee Why police station and confessed to being a fugitive – despite no-one looking for him.

A picture of Darko Desic, dated 1985, supplied by family.

“If this bloke doesn’t deserve Australian residency, who else does deserve it?” – Lawyer Paul McGirr.

He had to serve the rest of his non-parole period until October 30 this year and a magistrate imposed a further two months for escaping. The court was told that he had gone on the run because he feared being deported to what was then Yugoslavia and being detained as a deserter or forced to fight in the civil war.

In his 29 years of freedom, he had never visited a doctor or dentist or obtained a driver’s licence because he had no ID documents. He chose prison for a roof over his head and a meal.

Desic was refused clemency on the remainder of his sentence by NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman. He is likely to be taken to Villawood Detention Centre on his release on December 29 while his lawyers fight for residency.