Two men were convicted of trying to break out of Perth’s maximum security Casuarina Prison. One of them was Wayne Robert Napier, who was convicted of murder in 1989 for “using a concrete pole to kill a man named [David] Locke”. The ANM suspected Locke, a member of the terrorist group, was a police informer who would help in the prosecution of Jack van Tongeren. They had him murdered, but JVT was convicted anyway and served a 12-year stretch for arson, assault, theft and fraud.

According to The West Australian, Napier had several accomplices. One of them, armed robber David Graeme Hintz, prepared coded messages and passed them to their man on the outside, Allan Royce Dawson. Unfortunately, police caught Dawson with notes explaining the code:

The notes laid out a list of code words relating to car stereos, along with their real meanings — stereo meant front-end loader, deck meant jail, 6×9 meant perimeter and amps meant guns.

Dawson was also told likely places to find a front-end loader, how to jump-start it, where to park getaway cars, who to contact for weapons and how to position the machine’s bucket and gears to penetrate perimeter fences.

The note asked Dawson to secure an AK-47 assault rifle, two handguns and six to eight grenades for the attempt.

The escape-plan trial was delayed at one point, because “Napier shook off two corrections officers and violently attacked the fourth conspirator, James Anderson, in open court.” Anderson pleaded guilty before the trial. No doubt Napier thought he’d rolled over — and we know what Napier does to suspected police informants.