KEY POINTS:
A prison guard told a court he planned to challenge a man he recognised who approached him and two other guards as they escorted prisoner Arthur Taylor to a meeting but kept his mouth shut when he saw the man had a gun.
Senior corrections officer Gary Keenan was giving evidence at a trial at the High Court in Wellington where Taylor, 51, is representing himself.
Taylor denies charges of escaping from lawful custody, being party to another person - Manu Royal - having an air gun with an attempt to commit an offence and three charges of kidnapping.
The Crown alleges Taylor escaped from a prison van while being escorted to a family group conference at Child Youth and Family (CYF) offices in Wellington city on March 22, 2005.
He handcuffed two prison guards together and fled. He climbed through a roof space in a nearby street and fell through the ceiling, landing in a womans toilet. Shortly afterwards he was arrested in a car park.
Mr Keenan told the court he "knew of" Taylor before the incident.
He said he and two other prison guards were assigned to escort Taylor and went to his cell just after 1pm.
Taylor knew about the conference, but did not know the time it was to occur.
Mr Keenan said Taylor was strip-searched and no contraband was found.
Taylor had a large package of files - papers and letters - to take with him which also passed inspection.
He was then handcuffed to corrections officer Bhavesh Patel for the journey.
Mr Keenan said after locking the handcuffs he put the key in his pocket.
The prison vehicle was met by a CYF staff member and a security guard when they arrived at the carpark.
When all four men were out of the car Mr Keenan said he turned towards the lift area, but could no longer see the CYF worker or the security guard.
He then saw "a brief glimpse of something green and fluoro" before turning to Taylor and Mr Patel.
When he looked again towards the lift he saw a person walking from that area wearing a fluorescent green jacket.
"I recognised the person almost straight away as Manu Royal".
Mr Keenan said he had encountered Royal before.
"I kind of made a very quick decision on the fact that I recognised him and I was going to challenge him as to what he was doing here because I knew that he was an associate of Taylor's.
"At that time, I saw the pistol in his hand and decided to shut my mouth."
In answer to a question from Justice Ronald Young, Mr Keenan said he knew Royal and Taylor were associates in 1991.
Royal waved the pistol at the guards. Although it was actually an air gun, it looked like a real gun, Mr Keenan said.
He said he saw Taylor had lifted his arms and had what appeared to be a handcuff key. He tried unsuccessfully to undo his handcuffs.
Mr Keenan said he thought Royal said "Give him to me".
Taylor then ordered that his handcuffs be removed, and Mr Keenan said he complied because he believed it was best to let the men go.
Taylor then handcuffed Mr Keenan to Mr Patel then fled with Royal.
Under cross examination, Mr Keenan said he could not recall whether Taylor had asked him for the handcuff key.
He agreed there was no reference in his initial police statement to Taylor asking for the key.
Mr Patel, who was a senior corrections officer at the time, told the court Taylor had seemed "calm and normal" during the journey to the CYF meeting.
When Taylor tried to unlock the handcuffs that linked the two men, Mr Patel said he tried to steady himself as Taylor was pulling his arm.
He said he saw Taylor get the key "from the right side of his body".
Under cross-examination, he denied Taylor's suggestion that he was trying to push the handcuff off his wrists, not unlock them.
The trial continues.
- NZPA
