Escaper wants to renew appeal

One of the country's most notorious prison escapers, Brian Curtis, is trying to revive an appeal against his drug smuggling convictions, 13 years after he was jailed for almost two decades.

Curtis, now 71, remains in Auckland Prison at Paremoremo which he fled - using knotted sheets and a home-made ladder - in a high-profile escape from the maximum security jail in 1993.

He was sent back there after he was recaptured in the Philippines, where he lived for much of his eight years on the run.

His lawyer, Andrew Speed, told the Court of Appeal in Wellington yesterday that even an escapee should be allowed to exercise his right to appeal if there was the prospect of an injustice or wrongful conviction.

Justice Noel Anderson asked if it would bring the justice system into disrepute to grant a fresh appeal to a man who had abandoned one appeal, been brought back into New Zealand in handcuffs, then tried to re-start his appeal.

Curtis, who was not in court, has applied to have set aside his abandoned 1992 appeal against his conviction and 18-year sentence for smuggling LSD worth about $1.5 million.

Mr Speed said that when Curtis abandoned that appeal he did not understand that he was forever ending his right to appeal.

"There are occasions in history when people who have fought against injustice ... have [been] found to be wrongly convicted or faced an injustice," said Mr Speed.

On Curtis' escape, he said it was not to his client's credit. "There's not a great deal you can say when you've escaped from jail and not come back for 10 years," said Mr Speed.

He told the court fresh evidence might be available to present at a new appeal, based on a letter which may have been written by one of Curtis' co-offenders, Alan Nelson Wati.

That document surfaced two weeks after Curtis escaped from Paremoremo in 1993 - something which Justice Anderson said was a "coincidence" which had to be remarked upon.

Mr Speed said material in the letter might lead to grounds for an appeal, even if in itself it was not admissible as evidence.

Asked if Mr Wati was available yesterday to give evidence about the letter, Mr Speed said it appeared he may have gone to ground.

"He's disappeared at a most inconvenient time."

Curtis, Wati and a third man, David John Squire, were all jailed after a police investigation, dubbed Operation Patch, uncovered the smuggling of 35,000 tabs of LSD from the Netherlands to New Zealand.

Curtis was found guilty on two charges of importing LSD, and later admitted nine other changes of false pretences and two of attempted false pretences.

Crown counsel Austin Powell said the court should identify compelling reasons for setting aside an original, abandoned appeal.

Asked by the bench if evidence relating to the trial was still available, Mr Powell said it was now being looked for but the files no doubt resembled any that were 13 years old and previously thought closed.

He said there was a distinct possibility that some evidential tape recordings of conversations no longer existed.

Justices Anderson, Grant Hammond and William Young reserved their decision.

LEGAL SAGA

* Brian Curtis was jailed for importing LSD worth $1.5 million in 1991.

* The following year he abandoned an appeal against his convictions.

* In August 1993, he and convicted killer Michael Bullock escaped from Auckland Prison.

* For the next eight years, Curtis is thought to have lived mainly in Asia.

* He was recaptured after Auckland detective Mike Bush tracked him to Manila.

* While there he had started a new relationship and had a daughter.

* He was brought back to New Zealand in 2001 and his escape earned him two-and-a-half- years' jail.

* Curtis yesterday asked the Court of Appeal to let him revive his appeal.

* Now 71, he remains in Auckland Prison and his lawyers say he is in good health.