An inmate’s trail of destruction across a prison roof during a night under the stars cost almost $250,000 to repair and earned him two more years behind bars.
The inmate at Whanganui’s Kaitoke Prison was returning to his unit on March 26 last year when he seized an opportunity to elude staff and scaled a mesh grate to gain access to an area of the roof.
He was well known to guards and his unruly behaviour, at the minimum- to high-security prison, began the previous day with an attempted assault on a guard, followed by an argument during a telephone call just before he gained access to the roof and refused to budge.
The prisoner was able to access a wide area on the roof and caused extensive damage to skylight, air conditioning units, lighting units, plumbing infrastructure, roofing iron, gutters and fire sprinklers during the night before he climbed down at 1pm the following day.