Australian Man Stages Shawshank-Style Escape From Bali Prison

Perth man Shaun Edward Davidson has staged a successful escape from Bali's Kerobokan prison, and Indonesian officials are still searching for him and three other former inmates who accompanied him. The 33-year-old Australian fled with a trio of fellow international prisoners: Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov, Indian Sayed Mohammed Said, and Malaysian Tee Koko King bin Tee Kim Sai. The foursome escaped at night by digging a tunnel into a water pipe that stretched under the prison's fence, and their absence wasn't noted until morning.

"The tunnel is about 12 metres long and we suspect it took more than a week to build," head of Kerobokan prison Tony Nainggolan told local media. Nainggolan said the men were still at large, although it was unlikely that they had left the island of Bali.

It turns out Davidson isn't only on the run from Indonesian officials. He had actually escaped to Bali using a fake passport after being convicted on drug charges in Perth, Western Australia, back in 2016. Davidson—or ""Michael John Bayman"— escaped to Indonesia on the same day he was supposed to face the Perth Magistrates Court for possessing a prohibited drug with the intention to sell or supply.

Unfortunately for Davidson, the fake passport he used depicted an overweight man to whom he bore little resemblance. Although Davidson tried to tell Indonesian border control officials that the photo had been taken back when he was "chubby", they weren't convinced. He was convicted of immigration violations and sentenced to a year at Kerobokan—getting off relatively lightly, given the maximum term for such offences is seven years.

Davidson only had three months left on his sentence at Kerobokan, but his escape was apparently out of desperation—he had formerly described life in the Bali prison as "a living hell".

"It was built for 300 prisoners, there are 1200 there," Davidson told the Sydney Morning Herald last year. "You don't get given anything. Just like concrete floors. In the corner they have got a bit blocked off where there is a hole in the ground. That's pretty much the toilet and the shower."

The search for Davidson and his fellow escapees continues.

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