A fellow sex offender tipped authorities off that notorious rapist Robert John Fardon planned to escape from his supervised accommodation, a court has heard.
Fardon, 65, appeared in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday, accused of breaching a supervision order by plotting his escape.
He'll remain behind bars for almost two weeks until the court determines whether he breached his supervision order.
The rapist had been living at the Wacol-based accommodation since his release from jail in December.
Andrew Wilson, the acting manager at the facility where Fardon was housed, told the court another offender, Robert Riddler, had called him on Tuesday morning to report the escape plot.
He said Riddler had told him the morning before that Fardon had between $1000 to $2000 in a bank account and wanted Riddler to source a vehicle for him and drive him to the Gold Coast region so he could escape over the NSW border.
"Mr Riddler stated he provided the information because when people breach their orders, it brings undue scrutiny and pressure on the rest of the guys subject to supervision," Mr Wilson said.
He rejected suggestions from Fardon's barrister Dan O'Gorman that Riddler was trying to curry favour or reduce curfew restrictions imposed on him in exchange for providing the information.
Mr O'Gorman labelled Riddler an "inherently unreliable witness" and questioned why Mr Wilson did not interview another prisoner, Roderick Button, said to have also heard Fardon's escape plot.
Justice Phillip McMurdo said there was reasonable suspicion that Fardon would escape.
However, he said a two-day hearing on September 16 and 17 would determine whether he did in fact breach his supervision order.
That hearing is likely to hear from Riddler and Button.
Fardon has spent most of his adult life in jail for sex crimes against women and children and was freed only after a protracted legal battle by Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie, who wanted him kept behind bars.
In 2003, he became the first person to be jailed indefinitely under the state's Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act.
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