Christopher Dean Binse

Also known as 'Badness', Binse was born in 1968.

He has been described as highly intelligent and hyperactive.

At the age of 13 Binse had left home and was made a ward of the state.

Since then he has spent most of his life behind bars.

"I just wasn’t happy at home and it’s as simple as that; I just ran away from home. My mother and father separated, she found a new person, and they married, and he was a good person, but I just didn’t feel comfortable there, and I just kept on running away, and that started the whole ball game really," Binse told Damien Carrick in a 2005 interview on ABC Radio.

"I’d run away and break into cars and steal cars just to sleep, and stuff like that, and that caused me to come into contact with the police, be arrested."

"I just started to learn more about crime, how to break into other cars, it was education in further crime."

At 14 he had been declared uncontrollable and put in Turana boy's home.

He has rarely been out of custody since, legally at least.

Sent to Pentridge at the age of 17, Binse said that the nature of his crimes became more serious after he was released.

"When I got out after serving that term, because I was in the company of some hard-core elements in the system, and I got out with an axe to grind and hooked up with another inmate, and within weeks the minor crimes turn into armed robberies."

After turning to armed robbery, he gave himself the nickname 'Badness'.

In his book 'Dirty Dozen', Paul Anderson wrote that Binse was a cocky individual swept up in his own publicity who had personalised number plates reading BADNES and a Queensland property that he called "Badlands".

Binse is a notorious bank-robber and a repeat prison-escapee.

After one robbery he placed a personal ad for the chief investigating detective stating: "To Ashers: Badness is back."

Another officer was sent a Christmas card saying "Wish you were here, Badness" while one, covered with dollar signs, was signed 'Lord Badness'.

Binse was once arrested at Melbourne Airport after committing a big armed robbery.

He would never pre-book, preferring $89 stand-by tickets.

"I don't believe in plastic money, I want the real stuff. If you hadn't caught me at the airport you would have had nothing. I know that," he told police.

After being arrested by Melbourne detectives he expected to be bashed but when he realised the police already had an airtight case he relaxed and explained why he loved committing armed robberies.

"For the excitement, the rush. Lifestyle, you'd have to know what it feels like. It's like you're on a raid, you're in control, your blood starts rushing, you feel grouse, you're hyped up. Fuck the money. It's more the excitement, it's an addiction. I know what it is."

"Time's going by, quick, quick, quick and you're just thinking. What happens if you see a police car."

"Most of the time, 95 per cent, I saw a Jack (police) car drive past or saw a jack car within 10 minutes of the job. It was my good luck sign. It's already been through, it won't come back, it's going in a different direction."

In September 1992, Binse fled from a prison ward at St Vincent's in Melbourne.

He used a smuggled gun left in the hospital.

He was arrested in Sydney.

On October 24, Binse escaped from Parramatta jail by jumping a four-metre gap between buildings.

Binse had been injured in a knife fight and had been taken to the hospital's St Augustine's security ward.

Using a smuggled handgun reportedly delivered inside a cake, Binse held hospital staff at bay and fled.

Binse, along with a woman, was recaptured in Gladesville, Sydney, the next month but broke out of Parramatta Jail.

He cut through a metal grille, tied together several bed sheets and lowered himself to an adjoining roof.

After swinging over a barbed-wire fence he jumped onto an awaiting truck and disappeared.

Guards fired shots but missed the escapee.

A month after his escape, Binse robbed the Commonwealth bank at Doncaster of $160,000.

Detective Sergeant Steve Curnow learned that Binse and two others planned to rob an Armaguard truck in Melbourne.

The armed robbery squad launched a top priority operation, code-named Farnsy.

They found Binse hiding on a farm near Daylesford.

Listening devices picked up that one of the men at the farm was known as 'Tom'.

They didn't know at the time that Tom was Tom Cummings, alias notorious bank robber and cop-killer Edward "Jockey" Smith.

Just after 8pm on December 5, 1992, 'Tom' drove from the farm in a white Ford panel van.

Police decided to let him go.

They knew he would be back and their main target, Binse, was still inside.

Local policeman Senior Constable Ian Harris was on a routine afternoon shift and was unaware of the armed robbery squad operation in the area when he spotted a van on the Midland Highway.

He saw the driver was travelling at about 80kmh, 20 below the speed limit.

He checked on the radio for the 'usuals'.

He was told the car had been reported stolen.

He followed the van until it turned into the Farmer's Arms Hotel in Creswick.

Drinkers in the bar stood to watch the show.

Jockey got out of the van and approached the policeman, still sitting in his marked car.

After a brief discussion, Harris asked the driver for proof of ownership.

Smith went back, grabbed the car manual and used it to conceal a five-shot hand gun.

In the left pocket of his jeans was a can of mace.

Harris got out of the car and Smith shoved the revolver in the policeman's stomach. 

He ordered the policeman to hand over his gun but the policeman kept it just out of reach of the smaller man.

Smith fired a shot into the ground and said, "I'll give you 10 seconds to get your gun out of your pocket and get on the bonnet or I'll blow you away."

Harris called on the drinkers to ring the police.

He knew back-up was only minutes away.

But would it be too late?

He was not to know that just up the road half the armed robbery squad and special operations group were watching a quiet farmhouse while he was fighting for his life.

A local called Darren Neil was on his way to the Farmer's Arms but when he saw the police car he decided to keep driving.

Then he looked in his rear-view mirror and saw a man pointing a gun at the policeman, who was trying to back away.

Later, Neil could not explain his reaction.

He went back to the pub, got out of his car, walked over to the gunman and pushed his in the chest.

Smith responded by firing a warning shot into the ground. Neil knew this was no game.

He ran back to his car, drove to the entrance of the pub and pushed his two kids, who had been travelling with him, to safety.

He then drove back at the gunman.

Smith fired another shot and then pointed his gun at Neil.

It was the split second Harris needed.

He grabbed his service revolver and fired three times, hitting Smith in the chest and stomach.

The shots were fatal.

Binse and his partner (the woman police believe helped him escape from St. Vincent's) were arrested several hours later.

Senior police believe many escapes from Australian jails are more organised than is publicly acknowledged.

The Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence completed an investigation code-named Operation GAP, which found that a nationwide network existed to help prisoners on the run.

It found escapers could be provided with safe houses around Australia and fake documents from the group.

The theory seemed to be confirmed by the fact that Binse and Jockey Smith were using the same house in Daylesford.

In 1993 Binse received more jail time.

He was imprisoned for seven years with a minimum of five over four armed robberies which earned him $278,661 between January 1991 and November 1992.

In the same year, Binse was the leader of a plan to free up to 30 of Victoria's most dangerous prisoners inside Pentridge's then top-security H Division.

Prison officers seized Binse's diary and found the plan to free the inmates from their cells and attack - and possibly kill - the person responsible for the Hoddle Street shootings.

The plan was for the inmates to escape of October 26.

The date was picked because it was the anniversary of Binse's escape from Parramatta.

The escape was foiled after prison guard Les Attard was stabbed 17 times on October 25.

The escape bid was discovered when prison officers found the lock on Binse's cell door had been neatly cut with a hacksaw blade.

They also found a home-made prison officer's uniform in the division the following day.

The shirt was made from Binse's civilian shirt.

In further searches prison officers found two jail-made daggers, six jail-made Office of Corrections shirt insignias and a hacksaw blade.

According to the diary, four inmates controlled the escape plan.

They were Binse; double murderer John William Lindrea, who had previously escaped from Pentridge; Robert Chapman; and a fourth prisoner who allegedly ran much of the drug trafficking in the jail.

A fifth prisoner, escape expert Paul Alexander Anderson, was used by the group as a specialist consultant.

Prison authorities believe an inmate was to overpower the single night guard, take the officer's handgun then open all 30 cells.

According to the plan, selected inmates, including the Hoddle St killer who was believed to be an informer, were to be attacked as part of a payback.

The escape leaders then had two plans.

The first involved getting the keys to the division, escaping from H Division into the main jail and scaling the outside wall at the back of the prison.

The second was to keep the officer as a hostage and escape as a group through the front gate.

In May 1995, while serving at least five years at Barwon Prison, he hack-sawed his way out of his cell at the maximum security jail.

He and double murderer John William Lindrea were found hours later hiding in the prison grounds.

Binse was then chained in leg irons, handcuffs and a body belt whenever he left his cell for exercise.

He lost a Supreme Court bid to have the shackles declared illegal.

He served out his sentence in Victoria before being transferred to New South Wales.

In Sydney in 1996 Binse was escorted to his court appearance in irons and handcuffs.

He was surrounded by a phalanx of guards toting shotguns.

Binse spent a further eight and a half years in jail and had the dubious honour of being one of the first inmates in the new $20 million maximum security unit at Goulburn Jail, known as Super Max.

Binse acknowledges that it was not until he heard witnesses relive the terror of being held at gunpoint that he understood the impact of what he had done.

"Yeah, I yelled and screamed, discharged a firearm but I never pistol-whipped anyone or anything like that ... In my head it was point a gun, frighten people, get in and out quick. I didn't really understand," he said.

"I never actually pointed a gun at anyone’s head, Okay, I’ve never physically assaulted them. I arrived at the bank, I had in my mind I had to create as much fear in the shortest possible time, gain control of the situation, in and out, probably within two minutes, you know. I was there purely for the money, in and out, before the police arrive."

Damien Carrick: And what would you do, you’d burst into the bank, and shout ‘Hand over the money’?

Christopher Binse: ‘This is a hold-up. Please everybody listen to what I say’, words to that effect just to make sure because sometimes people felt it could have been a joke or it was a stunt or something. So you had to gain their attention. Sometimes I’d discharge a firearm, just to make them aware that this is real, you know. Listen to what I say."

"I didn’t realise the extent of the impact I had upon my victims. Down in Victoria I took a plea and so I didn’t witness what the victims went through until I got to New South Wales. But when I got to Sydney, then I seen, you know, like three or four out of probably 25 witnesses were affected by it, yes."

"Because I walked in there and I felt that, silly me, because I didn’t assault them, didn’t shoot them or anything like that, that they’d recover, it wasn’t such a big deal, but I didn’t realise that they were traumatised and psychologically harmed and affected by this."

"See, I’ve been arrested by the State Protection Group in Sydney, by Special Operation Group in Victoria, my last arrest I was hospitalised, bedside hearing. I’ve seen a lot of things, you know, and I was able to survive relatively intact, and I applied my abilities on to the other, where they’re not as, say, strong as me, or able to handle this as well as me, you know."

Damien Carrick: So what you’re saying is, you didn’t think it was a big deal?

Christopher Binse: That’s right. I survived it intact, you know, and I didn’t even subject them to one quarter of what I was subjected to, that they should be able to walk away intact.

Damien Carrick: I understand that in I think maybe this trial. I know in one of your trials, you actually represented yourself. Was that this trial?

Christopher Binse: Yes, the last one, yes.

Damien Carrick: And you actually cross-examined some of these witnesses?

Christopher Binse: Yes.

Damien Carrick: That presumably would have been the first time you’d actually ever spoken to somebody that you’d held up?

Christopher Binse: That’s right. I felt the acute effects of what they endured, because I was in close contact with them, and I had to actually defend myself, but at the same time I was able to feel what they were going through.

Damien Carrick: And what did they say?

Christopher Binse: Oh, they were just traumatised and they were in shock and they were scared and that sort of stuff.

Damien Carrick: So obviously you were found guilty of these offences. What prison sentence did you receive?

Christopher Binse: There was a number of prison sentences in Victoria and New South Wales, a combination, it worked out to be 13 years. That’s the top sentence, head sentence, and it was 13 with a 10. I ended up doing 13 full-time.

Damien Carrick: So how many bank robberies did you commit?

Christopher Binse: I was charged with I think about six or seven in Victoria, and two in New South Wales.

Damien Carrick: Did you commit more?

Christopher Binse: Let’s just say I was a very unsuccessful bank robber. Escaped from custody seven times and earned the fury of detectives and prison guards in two states as he taunted them with letters and newspaper ads.

Damien Carrick: So you’ve escaped from jail a couple of times. You once escaped from jail when you were in hospital, being treated for stab wounds that had been inflicted on you in a prison fight. Tell me about that fight and tell me about being in hospital and escaping.

Christopher Binse: Well I won’t go into the specifics of the fight, just to say I was stabbed twice. I nearly died from the wounds. I went to hospital, they didn’t believe I was going to survive or recover because of my blood pressure."

"From the time it was brought to their attention, took them two hours to finally arrive in hospital, two hours, so I nearly died from loss of blood. And I was there for about five days and I came into possession of an item that was able to secure my release.

Damien Carrick: What was that?

Christopher Binse: Well there's differing stories. A lot of people believe it was a 32 automatic pistol, Browning, Some people think it’s a water pistol, you know, and I let the viewers decide what it may have been."

"Put it this way, I brought it to the attention of the prison officers in the secure ward there, I said, ‘Listen...' I suggested there was a real gun, and if they’re silly then they may get hurt, if they listen to what I say then it’s all good, we all leave and get home to our wives and kids and family, you know.

Damien Carrick: And you got out of hospital that way?

Christopher Binse: Yes.

Damien Carrick: And then you were caught and sent back to prison.

Christopher Binse: That’s right. That’s in New South Wales, and arrested in New South Wales after another armed robbery.

Damien Carrick: So in that space of a week, you committed an armed robbery, and went back into prison.

Christopher Binse: Yes.

Damien Carrick: Then I think you escaped again, is that right?

Christopher Binse: Yes, I was in custody for about four or five weeks and then I escaped again from Parramatta Prison and was out for probably about six weeks, returned to Victoria, committed another armed robbery, and was arrested within a week after that armed robbery. That was on 5 December ’92

Damien Carrick: How did you escape from Parramatta Prison?

Christopher Binse: Oh, that was a pretty interesting one. I cut the bars on the top landing of A5 wing in Parramatta, this was during the day, lowered myself onto a roof, like a reception roof of an old storeroom, and from there I jumped onto the new reception roof, I was shot at by one of the officers who witnessed me, I attempted to abseil down into a security zone, the bedding sheets I had put together, they broke, and then I had to scale the perimeter fence and ran out the front gate.

Damien Carrick: While you were on the run from prison, you would taunt your pursuers with letters and newspaper ads.

Christopher Binse: Yes.

Damien Carrick: Tell me about those.

Christopher Binse: Well me and the Armed Robbery Squad Victoria had feelings towards each other you know, there was a number of them arrested over me in relation to a bribery and stuff, you know, corruption. And so with that in mind I would taunt them and just drive them into a frenzy.

Damien Carrick: What did you do? You sent them cards and put ads in newspapers.

Christopher Binse: I’d send them a postcard from another state, and I’d fly in, I’d actually send the postcard from say Sydney on the day before I flew in, arrive in Victoria, commit an armed robbery that afternoon. I’d time it where they’d probably received the postcard, so I’d be in their mind, and they would have had me as a suspect for the crime, you know, I was just playing with them.

Damien Carrick: And you even sent people Christmas cards, things like that.

Christopher Binse: A bit of a larrikin you know, cheeky, I’m a bit of a character. I didn’t have anything personal with them but it was just being cheeky, being naughty, that’s all it was.

Binse was one of several well known criminals to leave a death notice in the Herald Sun for the notorious Melbourne criminal Victor Peirce who was shot dead in Port Melbourne in May 2002.

Binse's notice said he was 'shattered'.

It was signed 'Badness'.

In 2004, denied parole, he decided he had nothing to gain from toeing the line in prison.

He threw out his cell radio and TV, demanded solitary confinement, refused prison garb and donned orange robes instead.

He spent months studying Buddhism, which he said helped him deal with the final parole rejection and contemplate a new future.

At around 10am on February 7, 2005, Binse blinked in the sunlight as he emerged from a 13-year sentence in Goulburn's forbidding "super max" prison.

Binse left prison in a stretch limousine - "It was my day, I wanted to do it in style" - after tying a black bandanna bandit-style over his face.

As he tackled an iced coffee topped with a mound of fresh cream, he grinned with the excited glee of a small child.

Chris Binse's trademark sense of humour - he describes it simply as "cheeky" - and a brimming trove of memories and yarns appeared to be all that remained of the man once described as Australia's most dangerous prisoner.

"Do I think I will be able to cope and adjust to the sudden transition ... who knows? I just have to remind myself that the jungle skills learned in jail are not compatible in the real world of society ... they just don't mix," he said.

"What I want to do, though, is make people understand that the system as it is is designed to produce failure. In some lower security jails, there is education, work ... yeah, there's been improvements. But in maximum security there's nothing. Just the yards. Nothing.
"The public scream about why recidivism rates are so high ... inmates live in primitive, squalid states, are taught no life skills, are thrown onto the street after sentence with nothing. No hope, no future, no skills. They turn to drugs, then they turn to crime. And then it starts all over again."

He is adamant he wants to help change the system, become an activist for reform, talk to children and politicians, contribute.

His optimism and faith, considering how long he has spent in institutions, is remarkable.

"I've learned a lot ... I want to do something positive ... The community suffers when these people come out from places like Goulburn desensitised and dehumanised. I want my legacy to be that there is a transition, so those two worlds of inside and outside don't collide."

Binse was given no support when he was freed.

Upon returning to Victoria and moving into a house in St Albans, he asked to mentor young offenders but was refused.

Binse was shattered and he relapsed into drug abuse, exacerbating his psychological disturbance.

Psychologist Patrick Newton said after 23-hour lockdown it was probable Binse would struggle to cope with freedom.

Binse went to the Spearmint Rhino strip club in King St brandishing a .32 silver handgun on November 13, 2005.

He threatened to shoot two employees, pointing it at security guard Kosala Jaysundara and receptionist Cherie Willis and asked to speak to a man he believed was connected to the club.

He warned the pair that he would come back and shoot them if they reported the matter to police, prosecutor David O'Doherty said.

He said Binse opened his gun and removed a bullet, leaving it on the counter at reception, threatened them again and left.

He was arrested on January 18, 2006.

He missed his daughter's birth.

Binse pleaded guilty in the County Court the following November to one count of possessing an unregistered firearm, two of common assault, two of carrying a firearm when committing an indictable offence and two of possessing of a drug of dependence.

On December 1, 2006, County Court Judge Margaret Rizkalla sentenced Binse to four years' jail and set a minimum of two years.

He had already served 318 days on remand.