Peter Gibb

Peter Robert Gibb (30 June 1954 – 23 January 2011) was an Australian criminal, known for his escape from the Melbourne Remand Centre in 1993.

Escape from Melbourne Remand Centre Gibb had several prior convictions for manslaughter, armed robbery and other weapons offences dating back to his mid-teens. In November 1981, he escaped from HM Prison Pentridge where he was awaiting a court hearing on charges of murder and armed robbery. He spent a month in St Kilda with fellow fugitive Trevor Smith who had escaped from Beechworth Correctional Centre. Police found and captured Gibb in Coburg.

In February 1993, he was convicted for the armed holdup of a security van in Sunshine two years earlier. Prior to his conviction, Gibb was held in the Melbourne Remand Centre, where he met prison officer Heather Parker. Parker's marriage to a fellow prison officer was ending, and she began a relationship with Gibb. In May 1992, the two of them were seen entering a broom cupboard, and Parker's colleagues demanded she be transferred, first to Pentridge and then the secure wing of St Vincent's Hospital.

On 7 March 1993, Gibb and a fellow prisoner, Archie Butterley, executed a meticulously planned escape with Parker's assistance. Using a small piece of explosive smuggled into the prison by Parker during a visit, Gibb and Butterley blew out part of a window and climbed down a string of knotted bedsheets to La Trobe Street below where a getaway car containing firearms and equipment was waiting. After several crashes, the escapees stole a motorcycle on the Westgate Freeway and continued on to Southbank Boulevard where they were intercepted by a police divisional van and engaged in a shootout with two officers. Gibb's arm was broken in the engagement, and one of the police officers was shot twice, then had his revolver and police van stolen by Gibb and Butterley. Parker also faced court in 2007 for assaulting a woman who had an affair with Gibb.

Death Gibb died at Frankston Hospital on the morning of 23 January 2011. He had sustained injuries after being beaten up by three men at his home in Seaford on the previous Friday (21 January). His girlfriend, Nicole Keating, told The Age newspaper that Gibb had been attacked as a response to a "practical joke" in which Gibb had pretended to shut a young boy in a freezer.

Portrayal in media The story of Gibb's escape and time on the run with Parker was adapted into a TV movie One Way Ticket (with the subjects' names changed to "Mick Webb" and "Deborah Carter"). Peter Phelps played the character based on Gibb.