John Killick walks free from prison in Queensland after more than 20 years in jail following helicopter jail break

NOTORIOUS bankrobber John Killick captivated the world with his daring escape from Silverwater prison in a helicopter hijacked by his Russian lover. Today he is finally a free man.

Lucy Dudko girlfriend of prison escapee bank robber John Reginald Killick who hijacked helicopter to help Killick escape fro...

BANKROBBER and daring prison escapee John Killick is finally tasting freedom.

Killick, who is now in his 70s, gained international notoriety after his Russian lover hijacked a helicopter at gunpoint to fly him out of prison in 1999. Today he was released from Woodford Correctional Centre, north of Brisbane, after serving more than 15 years in jail.

The career criminal has been in and out of jail since he was 18 years old, for crimes including bank book forgeries, jewel shop robberies and several armed robberies at banks.

But it was his audacious escape in 1999 from Silverwater that he will be remembered for.

In 1983, when Killick met his Russian lover Lucy Dudko, nicknamed “Red Lucy”, he was already on run after escaping Brisbane’s Boggo Road Gaol — with the help of another lover — while he was being escorted to hospital for an eye injury.

Dudko, a beautiful librarian, fell for Killick and during the 1990s the pair were constantly on the move to keep ahead of the law. Killick also robbed a number of banks to keep them in money and finance his gambling habit.

But the law finally caught up with him in NSW during a failed bank robbery in January 1999 when he was 57 years old.

Facing the prospect of an extended time apart, the couple hatched a daring escape plan.

In a scene reminiscent of the Charles Bronson film Breakout, which Dudko actually rented a week before the jail break, the 48-year-old organised a helicopter joy flight then pulled a shotgun on the pilot Tim Joyce.

The helicopter had been hired to fly over the construction site of Sydney Olympic Park, which was conveniently close to Silverwater jail where Killick was being held in Sydney’s west.

With a sawn-off shotgun pointed to his head, Joyce was directed to land the helicopter in the jail’s exercise yard where Killick was waiting.

As the helicopter took off, other prisoners tried to grab on to the aircraft and hitch a ride as guards opened fire on the bizarre scene. The escape made international headlines.

First pic of jailbreaker John Killick. Freed from QLD prison this morning @NewsTalk2UE pic.twitter.com/BcyLnK6v6n

— Leonie Ryan (@LeonieFRyan) January 22, 2015

But the couple’s grand plan started to unravel when Red Lucy realised she forgot the keys to a getaway car.

“There was supposed to be a car there, Lucy was supposed to have a car there, but she forgot the keys,” Killick told Sunday Night.

The pair hijacked a car and had the authorities chasing them through Victoria and NSW for 45 days. The law eventually caught up with them at Bass Hill Tourist Park, where they had booked a cabin under the names Mr and Mrs MG Brown. Police surrounded the couple while they slept after someone recognised them.

Dudko served seven years in prison for her role in the escape, and according to Fairfax, the couple continued to write letters to each other in jail. But Dudko reportedly ended the relationship after she told Killick she had devoted the rest of her life to God.

Despite now being a free man, Killick is not allowed to make contact with Dudko until he is 80 years old, according to the conditions of his parole.

Killick was held in jail in NSW from 1999, after being sentenced to 28 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 years. He was briefly released while he fought an extradition order to Queensland, where he had been sentenced to two years jail for armed robbery committed more than 20 years ago, and for breaching a parole order.

During parole reviews, Killick has acknowledged that problem gambling was a factor that influenced his armed robberies. But there have been short periods of his life when he was straight, he also married and had a child while in his 20s.

Killick was unsuccessful in fighting the Queensland extradition order in 2014 but was today released from Woodford Correctional Centre, north of Brisbane. He is a free man for the first time in 15 years.