Canberra courts: prisoner and woman accused of helping him escape face ACT Magistrates Court

Lila Rose Mary Walto and Kane Quinn, both 28, appeared via video link in the ACT Magistrates Court on Saturday following the incident on Friday night.

The court heard ACT Corrective Services was transporting Mr Quinn, who is also known as Kane McDowall and has what police described as a distinctive "rat's tail", between two locations in the territory at the time of the alleged offending.

Mr Quinn, whom the court heard was a sentenced prisoner, has not pleaded to the charges of escaping from custody and being a prisoner unlawfully at large.

Ms Walto, of Hackett, did not apply for bail and has not pleaded to three counts of assaulting a front-line community service provider.

She has also not pleaded to one count each of dangerous driving, driving while suspended, stealing a car, crashing and not giving details to the other driver and damage property.

Mr Quinn is set to face court again on August 2 when he is expected to enter pleas, while Ms Walto is scheduled for July 16 when she is expected to apply for bail.

In a statement yesterday, ACT Policing said the Jeep in which Ms Walto is accused of using to ram the corrective services car, a Toyota Camry, was found torched in Forrest about 40 minutes after the incident in Griffith about 4.10pm yesterday.

Police said he was being taken from the Alexander Maconochie Centre to Canberra Hospital at the time of the alleged offending.

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Mr Quinn was arrested late on Friday night after police received information from the public he was hiding in a house in Lyneham.

"Specialist negotiators facilitated the safe surrender of the man at about 9pm after he was found hiding in the roof space," ACT Policing said in a statement.

"Two females, believed to have been involved in the escape, were also arrested at the Lyneham house."

On Friday night before the arrests, Detective Acting Inspector Shane Scott said he could not recall "anything like this" despite a lengthy career as a police officer in Canberra.

"It's a little bit like a scene out of a Hollywood movie," he said.

Police said investigations were ongoing and that further arrests and charges were likely.

The incident comes less than one year after a report found inadequacies with the ACT Corrective Services' Court Transport Unit (CTU).

The Review of a Correctional Service report by the ACT Inspector of Correctional Services in December found that there were "anomalies" concerning the decision-making process that led to corrective services acquiring the Toyota Camry to replace their Toyota HiAce van.

"It is unclear to us why an at-risk detainee could not be transported safely in a larger-seat capacity vehicle that would provide more room for the detainee and safe-distancing of staff," the report stated.

"As the Camry is unsuitable as a general-use escort vehicle it may end up being underutilised and poor value for money."

Other CTU vehicles include a 2007 Mercedes Benz Sprinter van, also known as Romeo 4, listed as the oldest in the fleet.

"There is a design flaw with the Romeo 4 that could put the lives of detainees at risk in the event of a vehicle accident or fire," the report stated.

Other findings of the report included a lack of up-to-date policies and procedures, cleaning and maintenance of vehicle fleet and unit officers not being familiar with the emergency management procedures.

Among the 22 recommendations made were for the Justice and Community Safety Directorate to conduct a review of the process(es) in which Corrective Services makes decisions about CTU vehicles.

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