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MELBOURNE - A former Australian prisoner liked his jail cell so much he has decided to buy it.
Graeme Alford, who spent several years in Melbourne's former Pentridge prison for embezzlement and armed robbery in the 1970s, will buy his old cell, number 43, as part of a commercial redevelopment of the jail, local media reported on Wednesday.
Pentridge, one of Australia's most notorious prisons and site of the country's last hanging, is being redeveloped into a wine block that will eventually house A$50 million ($59.5 million) worth of rare wines.
Alford was a barrister whose love of gambling and drinking left him in debt to bookmakers and led him to steal from trust funds and use a sawn-off shotgun in a failed bank robbery.
After leaving prison in 1980, Alford turned his life around, swearing off the drink, writing books and starting a career as a motivational speaker. He will sign the sale contract for his old prison cell on Wednesday night, said Australian Associated Press.
- REUTERS
