A Canberra prisoner has pleaded not guilty to a charge of escaping lawful custody after allegedly going on the run following a ramming attack on the car that was taking him to hospital.
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Members of the public were asked to look out for a tall, tattooed and rat's-tailed convict as police desperately scoured the ACT for Kane Quinn, 28, last month.
The distinctive hairstyle was gone, replaced by a mullet, as Quinn sat wearing a white face mask in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday morning.
Four guards blocked off access to the exits as Quinn's solicitor, Jacob Robertson, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf.
The court heard Quinn, a sentenced prisoner until 2024, also faced outstanding charges of aggravated burglary, property damage and car theft.
There were no pleas to those charges, which date back to 2015, with Mr Robertson saying he knew nothing about them.
Police allege Lila Rose Mary Walto, also 28, repeatedly rammed an ACT Corrective Services car to free Quinn from custody on July 9.
Walto, whose lawyer has indicated she will likely plead guilty to some of the many charges laid against her, is accused of stealing a $60,000 Jeep Wrangler from a Canberra dealership that day.
She allegedly used it to chase and smash into the Toyota Camry that was being used to take Quinn from the Alexander Maconochie Centre to Canberra Hospital for a medical appointment.
Police claim Quinn escaped in Griffith and the pair took off together in the stolen vehicle, which was later torched and abandoned in Forrest.
Quinn and Walto were ultimately arrested at a house in Lyneham nearly five hours later.
Walto, who faces a raft of charges including rescuing a person from lawful custody using force and harbouring an escapee, also briefly appeared in court over the phone from jail on Monday morning.
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Her lawyer, Carley Hitchins, reiterated previous assertions that she expected the matter could be resolved with some guilty pleas.
Ms Hitchins said some of the charges appeared to be back-ups, or "duplicitous", and she was waiting for a prosecutor to provide advice on which counts would proceed before commencing negotiations.
Magistrate Beth Campbell adjourned the cases of both defendants to September 13.
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