Pentridge Prison escapee Peter John Walker sentenced to more prison time after great escape with Ronald Ryan
THE man who infamously escaped Pentridge Prison with Ronald Ryan has been put back behind bars after a bungled attempt at his last great escape.
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THE man who infamously escaped Pentridge Prison with Ronald Ryan has been put back behind bars after a bungled attempt at his last great escape.
Peter John Walker, 74, had a one-way ticket booked for London when he was arrested at Perth Airport in April 2014.
He has been behind bars since, and was today sentenced to stay there for at least another four years and four months after pleading guilty to drugs and weapons charges.
County Court chief judge Peter Kidd said it was Walker’s “ingrained code of never saying no to a mate” that had led to a lifetime of trouble.
SPECIAL REPORT: Ryan hanged over guard’s slaying in desperate escape
He was first picked up committing petty crimes in 1958 and for the next seven years was in and out of court.
While serving a 12-year sentence in 1965 he escaped Pentridge with Ronald Ryan, who shot prison guard George Hodson in the process.
The pair went on the run and were arrested in Sydney 19 days later, not before Walker shot dead truck driver Arhur Henderson.
Ryan was hung for his crimes, the last man to be hanged in Australia, while Walker spent the next 19 years in Pentridge, 9 of those in the hellish H division.
He stayed out of trouble until the early 2000s, when he was nabbed cultivating cannabis, and was set to make his great escape to London before being arrested in 2014.
He had a false passport using a dead man’s identity, and thousands of dollars in cash on him.
Walker was charged with 97 drug trafficking, deception and firearms offences and ultimately pleaded guilty to 14 charges.
Judge Kidd said it was alarming Walker had access to a cache of weapons, including two sub-machine guns, and numerous handguns he said he was minding for friends.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing guns and a silencer as well as trafficking about 280 grams of methylamphetamine.
He was jailed for a maximum of 7 years and 2 months.