Masquerade Escapade, Back In Stockade
The Age
Wednesday July 4, 2007
CAROLINE Musadeq knew she had little chance of official release from her cell at the Melbourne Custody Centre when she hatched a plan to escape by posing as another prisoner.
Her cell-mate Uaniva Pomale, 26, was not keen when Musadeq, 31, first suggested they could switch identities, in the event Pomale was granted bail.But by the time custody officers came to collect Pomale in May after she was granted bail, the pair had switched clothes and hairstyles and the wrong woman was released.Musadeq, of Niddrie, was yesterday sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to six months' jail after pleading guilty to 17 charges, including escape, theft and deception.Pomale, of Oakleigh South, will front court next month on charges that include armed robbery and assault. She claims she fell asleep when Musadeq assumed her identity.The court heard that Musadeq gave Pomale's name and date of birth, collected her possessions and evaded the law for 10 days, before she was spotted driving in St Kilda.She told police she had orchestrated the escape because she was "stressing" about her children, aged two and three years, who lived with her father.Police prosecutor Senior Constable Kelly Ramsey told the court Musadeq, who was working as a prostitute, stole a laptop computer and a credit card from a client at his Carnegie home.She used the credit card to go on a shopping spree at Chadstone with her boyfriend, buying shoes, sports gear, cigarettes and a mobile phone totalling almost $2000, some of which they sold to buy heroin.Magistrate Peter Reardon took into account Musadeq's "dysfunctional" upbringing, and encouraged her to shake a heroin addiction for her children's sake.She was sentenced to six months' jail and fined $400.
© 2007 The Age
