Peter Robert Gibb

Armed robbery squad detective, Ray Watson, once said, "There are two blokes I reckon are the coolest crooks I've ever dealt with."

"One is Peter Gibb. I remember doing a raid on him one morning and charging into his bedroom."

"Despite being confronted by an array of firearms, Gibb said: `What's happening, boys?'"

He and fellow prisoner Archie Butterly blew their way out of the Melbourne Remand Centre on March 7 with the help of Gibb's lover, then prison guard Heather Dianne Parker (right).

Gibb and Parker had consummated their desire in cupboards and various honeymoon cells around the institution.

Butterly had an extensive criminal history, including convictions for manslaughter and armed robbery.

Butterly shot and seriously wounded policeman, Sen-Constable Warren Treloar, in Southbank Boulevard after the escapees had crashed both a getaway car and a stolen motorcycle.

Gibb and Butterly took a revolver from Senior Constable Wayne Treloar who was shot during their escape from the remand centre.

They then commandeered a police van before meeting Parker, who had organised the escape.

Butterly, 46, was seriously injured during the escape and a subsequent car crash.

A massive police search lasted six days before the three were located near the Jamieson River, 180km north-east of Melbourne, after a motel at Gaffney's Creek, where they had been staying, burned down.

Gibb and Parker were arrested as they tried to escape police by wading along the Goulburn River after an exchange of fire between Butterly and members of the special operations group.

Police said Butterly fired nine shots from a .223 semi-automatic rifle.

Police fired 70 rounds from assault rifles.

Butterly was found shot dead.

He died from a shot behind the ear with a bullet fired from a police revolver.

Butterly's semi-automatic rifle and the police revolver which killed him were found with blood on them beside his body.

Police also found a shotgun in a carry case.

Police were divided about the likely cause of death.

Some were certain he committed suicide rather than be recaptured, while others were just as sure that he was murdered.

Gary Silk, one of the police officers gunned down in Moorabbin in 1998, was involved in the hunt for the Gibb trio and was one of the arresting officers.

On April 19, 1994, a jury heard Heather Parker devised an elaborate plan to break Gibb and Butterly out of the remand centre.

The County Court jury was told Parker arranged the theft of cars and registration plates for the escapees' getaway and left one stolen car, containing a .32 Beretta pistol and bullets, outside the remand centre.

Crown prosecutor Mr Peter Jones said Gibb and Butterly sped off in the car after blasting their way out of the centre with plastic explosives and then climbing down to the pavement on a makeshift rope of bed-sheets.

He said Butterly later shot a policeman with the gun Parker had provided, and the escapees then took off in the officer's police car to join Parker in South Melbourne.

Mr Jones, opening the crown case to the jury, said forensic evidence showed Parker had fired shots in the Jamieson gun battle before the escapees arrest.

He also said there was evidence that Butterly had not fired any shots in the battle, and that none of the shots fired by police had killed him.

An explanation by Gibb to the police that Butterly had committed suicide was not true, he said.

Parker, 30, formerly of Seaford, pleaded not guilty to 26 charges and Gibb, 39, pleaded not guilty to 22 charges.

Charges both of them faced included forcibly rescuing Butterly, using a firearm to prevent arrest, reckless conduct endangering life, intentionally causing serious injury, and making threats to kill.

Gibb also faced charges of armed robbery while Parker faced charges of breaking a prison and theft.

Gibb had pleaded guilty to one charge of escaping, and was convicted of the charge by the trial judge, Judge Joseph O'Shea.

Mr Jones told the jury that Parker had been working at the remand centre until nine months before the escape, and had become friendly with Gibb while he was an inmate.

The pair became lovers and Parker had decided, "being in the position that she was in", to help him escape.

Mr Jones said the escape happened just after Gibb was given a 12-year jail sentence and was due to be moved to Pentridge.

He said one female prison officer, who heard an explosion and ran out of a cell to see Gibb kick out a window, was warned by Butterly to "keep out of it".

When Gibb and Parker appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on a combined total of 48 charges, they exchanged winks, smiles and a brief kiss.

Both were jailed.

Parker was sentenced to five years.

Gibb and Parker kept in contact by phone.

It was alleged that Parker attacked a Fairlea Prison warder on June 14, 1994.

She pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing injury, assault by kicking, and unlawful assault after a court in March 1995 heard she kicked the warder.

On March 10, 1995, the Herald Sun reported that Peter Gibb, could be free 15 months before Heather Parker, after his acquittal on an armed robbery charge in the County Court.

After his recapture, his appeal succeeded and he was granted the retrial, which resulted in his acquittal by a jury.

Details of the acquittal were suppressed until March 10, after the Crown said it would not proceed with a retrial for Gibb's co-accused, Mick Tadic, 44.

The acquittal meant that if he hadn't blasted his way out of the Melbourne Remand Centre in March 1993, Gibb would have been free already.

Gibb's earliest release date had become March 1999, while Parker's was June 2000.

But in another twist, the mother-of-two pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing injury, assault by kicking, and unlawful assault after a court heard she kicked the Fairlea Prison warder.

In the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, prison officer Marie Reid said a fight broke out between Parker and another inmate, Anne Soan, in Parker's cell.

Ms Reid said when she stepped between the prisoners, "Heather kicked out".

She said Parker kicked her in the right side, leaving her winded, shaky and sore.

Barrister Steve Russell, for Parker, asked Ms Reid if she treated his client differently from other prisoners.

Ms Reid said she didn't.

Parker told the court prison authorities told her on her arrival at the prison that Soan had made death threats against her.

Parker said she was nervous in Soan's company but she agreed she and other inmates took some cardboard for craft which belonged to Soan.

She said Soan followed her back to her cell and punched her in the face.

Parker said she punched back but didn't kick anyone.

She didn't report the alleged assault to police because "I thought it was an internal matter," she said.

"When I asked to see internal investigations, I was refused."

The prosecutor, Sen-Constable Anne McKeown, asked her if Parker felt prison officers disliked her.

She replied: "Some do, yes, but not all of them."

On March 16, 1995, three police officers and a police dog were rewarded for their bravery during the pursuit of jail escapees Archie Butterly and Peter Gibb.

Sen-Constables Warren Treloar, Jan Schoenpflug, Trevor Berryman and police dog Shamus received bravery medals.

On April 10, 1995, the Herald Sun reported that Peter Gibb and Heather Parker had been implicated in the death of escapee Archie Butterly.

A leaked legal opinion by the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Bernard Bongiorno, said "there is ample evidence that one or other of them killed Butterly...."

But Mr Bongiorno told police there was "insufficient evidence to charge Parker and Gibb with Butterly's murder solely because there is insufficient evidence to prove that Butterly's death was brought about by a joint enterprise on their part".

An inquest on Butterly was scheduled to begin on August 14, 1995

Mr Bongiorno's advice on whether murder charges should be laid against Gibb and Parker was written shortly before his retirement as DPP in 1994.

His opinion that Gibb and Parker should not be charged shocked some homicide squad detectives.

These detectives said they thought it was a foregone conclusion that the pair would face murder charges.

Mr Bongiorno's advice to the Chief Commissioner, Mr Neil Comrie, was that there was no evidence in his view which "would permit a jury to come to the conclusion that Butterly's death was the result of a joint enterprise as that term is understood in the criminal law".

"The construction of a joint enterprise between Gibb and Parker depends on the proposition that one of them shot Butterly because they were both hampered in their overall object by Butterly's disability," the then DPP wrote.

"Whilst this may well be the case, there are other competing hypotheses which, in the absence of evidence, cannot be excluded.

"For example, there is no evidence to exclude a proposition that Butterly requested one of them to shoot him rather than permit his inevitable capture by police. This might even have occurred with the active dissent of the other," Mr Bongiorno's letter said.

Forensic evidence during the trial of Gibb and Parker showed that gunshot residue had been found on Parker's right hand. No residue had been found on Butterly.

The court heard medical evidence that Butterly had been alive for anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours after he was shot.

Police said there was a gap of almost 90 minutes between the end of the gunfight and when the SOG moved in and found Butterly's body.

Police who subscribed to the suicide theory say that Gibb and Parker could not have moved from the depression where Butterly's body was found while the SOG fired on his position.

Those who believed he was murdered said a study of all gunshot suicides for the past three years has not found one case where the deceased suffered a wound such as the one which killed Butterly.

Medical evidence suggested that the fatal shot was fired from directly behind Butterly's right ear, and that the ear lobe was pushed forward at the time.

Lawyers for Gibb and Parker told the County Court during their trial on escape and associated charges that they could not be sure that police had not shot Butterly after the gunbattle.

Butterly's inquest was listed for early 1995 but was adjourned pending Gibb's retrial the armed robbery charges for which he was acquitted.

In 1995, in a 60 Minutes interview, Parker declared her love for Gibb, saying she would "follow him to the end of the earth".

She said then the only thing that mattered during their days on the run was that she and Gibb were at last together.

"Peter and I were together, and that's all that mattered," she said.

"It was our first time in public . . . our first date if you like . . . it was special."

On May 17, 1996, the State Coroner, Graeme Johnstone, said forensic evidence presented at an inquest on escaped criminal Archie Butterly raised matters of concern for the administration of justice in Victoria.

Graeme Johnstone's findings were also critical of the crime scene investigation after Butterly's controversial death during the shootout beside the Goulburn River three years before.

Mr Johnstone called for a review of crime scene procedures to ensure more reliable gathering of gunshot residue samples, which were a central issue in the Butterly inquest.

One of the counsel who appeared at the inquest branded a key forensic witness a liar in a submission to the coroner after the public hearings.

Barrister John Smallwood, representing former prison officer Heather Parker, claimed that the witness, Robert Barnes, had "set out to prove Ms Parker fired the shots" which were in dispute.

Mr Smallwood said in his written submission that Mr Barnes had "lied and misled to achieve that aim and protect himself from criticism for having done so".

Counsel for Peter Robert Gibb, barrister Mr Stratton Langslow, also attacked Mr Barnes in a written submission.

Langslow, said Mr Barnes' evidence had been "at best grossly negligent, and at worst deliberately deceptive ".

Mr Barnes said that lawyers in the case "can say anything they like - and they have ".

"If there was any evidence that I'd lied, surely the coroner would have made some adverse finding against me," he said.

The coroner declared that who shot Archie Butterly remained a mystery.

"Whether Butterly took his own life after firing a limited number of rounds at police or he was shot by Gibb or Parker essentially will remain unanswered," Mr Johnstone said.

On February 14, 1997, Heather Parker and career criminal Peter Robert Gibb were reunited after four years.

Gibb, 42, was paroled from Barwon prison and within hours he was back "inside" another jail - the Women's Correctional Centre at Deer Park to visit Parker.

He had been out of custody for only 22 months since the age of 17.

But the pair were unable even to hold hands.

Their two meetings took place in the women's prison, where they were kept apart by a glass screen and could speak only over a telephone.

He saw Parker on his first day out of prison, then again the next day.

Gibb wanted to visit Parker a third time but his application was turned down by the authorities.

A prison spokesman said further applications for visits would be reviewed on a weekly basis.

Gibb, who then lived with his mother in a bayside suburb, would not talk about his visits to Parker or his relationship with her.

An earlier hearing was told Parker was in "the full bloom of love" with Gibb.

Parker was eligible for parole in September 1997.

The Victoria Police Association criticised Gibb's release.

Association secretary Danny Walsh said: "If ever there was a clear-cut case to demonstrate that sentencing for serious offences in this state was absolutely inadequate, then this is the case."

The pair continued their relationship and moved in together after their releases.

There was also a TV mini-series made about their escape, love-affair and capture.

Gibb and Ms Parker had a child in 1999.

The spectre of the Gary Silk/Rod Miller shootings returned to haunt Gibb when he was pulled over by a large police SOG team while he was on his way to his job on a city building site on September 16, 1998.

Within days of the Silk and Miller slayings, Gibb was identified as a possible suspect as Sgt Silk assisted in the recapture of Gibb and Parker.

Gibb was arrested during dawn raids across Melbourne.

Special operations group police swooped on Gibb as he left his Bayswater home about 6.30 am.

Gibb, then 44, was interviewed by homicide detectives from the Operation Lorimer taskforce, which was investigating the murders.

Gibb was released late in the day after several hours.

The Herald Sun wrote that it believed police also questioned his fiancée, Heather Parker.

Parker was on parole at the time of the SOG arrest.

Up to a dozen people were questioned after the synchronised raids, including people from homes in Brighton, Bayswater, Knox and the Mornington Peninsula.

Among those arrested and questioned was Ian Richard Burtoft, a close associate of Gibb.

Burtoft, 34, was seized at 6.45 am in his car on the Western Ring Rd in Ardeer as shocked motorists watched.

The morning arrest caused traffic-chaos on the Western Ring Road and was quickly reported across the radio news and talk shows.

Det. Chief-Insp. Rod Collins, head of the homicide squad, was on the scene as Burtoft was loaded into the back of an unmarked sedan and taken to the St Kilda Rd police complex.

Police allege a .38 calibre pistol with five live rounds in the magazine and one in the breech was found under the front seat in Burtoft's Holden Calais turbo.

Police later towed the car away for forensic testing.

One witness who saw the black-clad policemen force Burtoft from his car to the ground said: "There was a bloke hog-tied with a couple of the lads standing over him. I thought it was a movie."

Another stunned motorist said: "It was all over in a matter of seconds. They had guns pointed at him. It was just amazing."

Crime squad detectives also raided several properties belonging to associates of Gibb and Burtoft before bringing some of them in for questioning.

Gibb was interviewed for several hours.

Burtoft was also subjected to a lengthy interview before detectives charged him with five firearms offences.

He appeared at Melbourne Magistrates' Court late in the day and was bailed to reappear on October 16, 1998.

Gibb later pleaded guilty to driving charges resulting from an incident on January 21, 2002, when he stole a car from a Rosebud shopping centre.

He was in more trouble the next month when, according to Sgt Ken Hardie, Gibb and Shane Evans, 27, of Rosebud, drove into Frankston Yamaha on February 6, 2002 and stole a jet ski.

Gibb was arrested shortly after and remanded in custody.

On May 27, 2002 a court heard Gibb was suffering depression when he had stolen a the jet ski.

The Frankston Magistrates' Court was told Gibb turned to alcohol after his back was injured at a building site where he worked at the start of 2001.

The court heard Gibb, 47, of Rosebud, was affected by alcohol on three separate occasions when caught breaking the law.

He said the pair were driving a stolen ute when they hooked a trailer and jet ski to the vehicle before driving off.

The court has heard the pair ram-raided the same store the night before but left empty-handed.

Sgt Hardie said the pair drove a short distance with the jet ski before colliding with four parked cars on Peninsula Blvd.

At the time, Gibb was heavily affected by alcohol.

Gibb was charged with theft of a motor vehicle, theft of a $9500 jet ski and driving while his licence was suspended.

Mr Evans, who was charged with theft of a motor vehicle and theft of the jet ski, faced the charges in the Frankston Magistrates' Court.

Gibb's lawyer, Andrew Waters, said his client had a terrible history over a long period of time.

Magistrate Hal Hallenstein said Gibb faced a lengthy term of imprisonment.

He adjourned the hearing so Gibb could undergo a psychiatric assessment.

Gibb later pleaded guilty to theft, drink-driving, assault and other charges.

Ms Parker, the mother of Gibb's young son, was present in court to support her partner.

In court the lovers learned they would be apart again after Gibb was jailed for at least 18 months.

He was sentenced serve at least 12 months' jail on those counts.

A six-month suspended sentence was also restored and added to the term.

Magistrate Hal Hallenstein that Gibb had lost his grip on reality after suffering a back injury that ended his new construction career.

Mr Hallenstein said Gibb's appalling criminal history had included violence, death and injuries to others.

The new offences showed he had changed little, he said.

"They involved violence, the risk to life and limb of other people," Mr Hallenstein said.

The magistrate said he did not want to crush any "glimmer of rehabilitation" but the sentence needed to reflect the serious and repetitious nature of his offending.

Mr Hallenstein said Gibb's appalling criminal history had included violence, death and injuries to others.

On October 22, 2002, Herald Sun reporter Elissa Hunt revealed that Gibb was now happy to be back behind bars.

This came the day after a court heard that Gibb, who had spent the past eight months in prison awaiting sentence, felt safe and comfortable in jail.

"It was a great relief for Mr Gibb to return to custody," his psychologist, Wendy Northey, told Frankston Magistrates' Court.

She told magistrate Hal Hallenstein that Gibb had lost his grip on reality after suffering a back injury that ended his new construction career.

It was later claimed that Heather Parker had gone to the home of Heather Lee Gibbs on September 3, 2004, and abused and attacked her after Ms Gibbs admitted having sex with Peter Gibb.

Parker allegedly punched Ms Gibbs in the face, repeatedly struck her arm against a bench, hit her with kitchen stools, and kicked her.

Ms Gibbs suffered a broken arm.

She spent six days in hospital and required a metal plate in her arm.

In April 2005, Gibb was jailed for two months for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

It was alleged he tried to get Ms Gibbs to drop her complaint against Parker.

On February 19, 2007, Heather Parker, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly causing causing serious injury to Heather Gibbs.

Judge Ross Howie said Ms Gibbs told Parker that she had slept with Gibb.

Parker then verbally and physically attacked Ms Gibbs, Judge Howie said.