Shamus Tuohy smashed holes in a roof to escape from Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre

Details have emerged about the elaborate plot hatched by an inmate who broke out of Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre and spent several days on the run.

Shamus Tuohy was on Tuesday sentenced for breaking out of Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre.

A hoodlum and his co-accused mate made a daring escape from a youth justice centre by using sheets to cover their cell windows before smashing holes through the roof, a court has heard.

A major manhunt was launched after Shamus Tuohy, 22, and Matthew Piscopo, 19, broke out of the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre about 80 kilometres northwest of Melbourne earlier this month.

Tuohy, who was captured days later in Corio, was sentenced at Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to nine charges including escaping custody, criminal damage and offences related to separate incidents.

Leading Senior Constable Clint Prebble told the court Tuohy and Piscopo were housed in different rooms but their door ports were open allowing them to talk and plot their escape on the evening of August 6.

“The accused and the co-accused talked about Malmsbury Police Station being nearby and what shoes to wear for running,” he said.

The pair used bed sheets to cover the observational windows before Piscopo allegedly broke his bathroom sink and used it to cut a hole into the plaster roof of his cell.

Shamus Tuohy, 22.

Co-accused Matthew Piscopo, 19.

He allegedly climbed through the roof cavity and kicked a hole into Tuohy’s roof, allowing his friend to escape.

The court heard they climbed down a ladder into an adjacent maintenance room and broke the door’s lock which opened to a carpark.

CCTV captured them running to a nearby street where they used a payphone to call another person who picked them up in a car.

Correctional staff did not realise the pair, who’d placed pillows and stuffed toys in their bed to give the appearance they were sleeping, had escaped until 10:30am the following morning.

Police allege damage to the facility was estimated to cost about $10,000.

Piscopo was arrested two days later at a Ballarat home while Tuohy was nabbed at a Corio motel, more than an hour and a half away, after he was seen driving a stolen car.

Tuohy also pleaded guilty to stealing two cars in Ballarat and Melbourne in May.

Tuohy’s lawyer James Gilfillan said his client suffered a range of behavioural and mental impairments and was frustrated about being in Covid isolation while in the centre.

Magistrate Mark Stratmann sentenced Tuohy to one year in jail with a concurrent period of six months.

Appearing via video link from Melbourne Assessment Prison, Tuohy was silent during the hearing other than to confirm he could see and hear the court.

Piscopo was ordered to return to court on September 8 to face charges over the escape.