WOODHAM’S
DOG KENNEL
In the mid 1980’s, Ronald (Rotten
Ron) George Woodham, who at the time was the Superintendent of the Internal
Investigation Unit of the New South Wales Corrective Services, embarked on one
of the most corrupt practices ever encountered in the New South Wales legal
system. He recruited some of the most
dangerous, long term, drug affected prisoners as witnesses against prisoners,
prison officers and police officers, in return for favours, ranging from extra
visits, interstate transfers and assistance for early release.
Woodham was not alone in
this practice. It also involved a number
of police officers including the infamous Detective Inspector Aarne Tees. The prisoners that were recruited often gave
evidence in several criminal cases. This
practice was considered so corrupt that it came to the notice of the
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). The ICAC embarked on an investigation and was
scathing in their report that was published in January 1993. The practice of using prisoners as witnesses
has since been refined and their input must be supported by other substantiated
evidence.
Woodham had recruited so
many prisoners willing to say “whatever was required”, that he had to build a
special prison to hold these prisoner informers. Prisoners who give evidence against other
prisoners suffer the wrath of the main stream prisoners and are referred to by
them as “dogs”, hence the nickname given to Woodham’s protection prison being “Woodham’s
dog kennel”.
One of the prisoners in the
kennel was well known escapologist Raymond John Denning. His crimes and the help given to him by
Woodham and Tees are beyond human belief.
Raymond John Denning
Sketch by Robert A Wood
A small example of the type
of prisoner Raymond John Denning was is as follows:
On Saturday 14th
September 1974, four extremely dangerous prisoners attempted to escape from
Parramatta Gaol. They were Raymond John
Denning, Warwick James, John Bradley and Errol Manley. Two were armed with knives and Raymond John
Denning was armed with a hammer like implement. Denning was reported as saying the previous
day that he wanted, “To kill a screw” before he escaped.
Karl Faber, as he was
commonly known within the prison officer fraternity, was on duty as an Overseer,
which was equivalent to a First Class Prison Officer, only working in prison
industries. The four dangerous cowards, Denning, James, Bradley and Manley,
confronted the unarmed Mr Faber, with Denning hitting him so hard from behind with
his hammer that he caused Mr Faber severe compound fractures to his skull. They locked his unconscious body into the
storeroom where they left him lying in a pool of his own blood, essentially
leaving him to die. Mr Faber never stood
a chance.
Three
of the failed escapees were quickly rounded up while Denning had managed to
make his way into another yard but was quickly uncovered by an alert prison
officer realising he was in the wrong location.
All four prisoners were transported to the OBS (Observation Section) in
the Central Industrial Prison at Long Bay.
I was instructed to accompany
Principal Prison Officer William “Bill” Bartlett to the OBS where the four
prisoners were placed in single cells on the bottom floor. Mr Bartlett and I were instructed to stay
there until the Special Operations Division (SOD) officers came to collect them
for their “trip north” as the saying went, referring to the Grafton Intractable
Section. We were to make sure that
nothing was to happen to the prisoners, especially from officers who may want
to take some form of revenge. That
thankfully did not become an issue.
To read more about Woodham’s dog kennel
and Raymond John Denning, read my latest eBook “Officers, Criminals and Amazing
Prison Stories”, available through this website or Amazon.
