Kia ora. I'm John Hudson. Welcome to Sunday. Tonight ` new thinking about thinking that can literally change your mind. A happy, healthy little boy. Very sociable, and that definitely changed, I'd say, what, about age 7. So what changed? READS: Mum always watched` Uh, wa` (SIGHS) Frustration with not being able to keep up. What's going on inside Nick's head? And what, if anything, can be done to help him reach his full potential? Every child will be on their own programme specific to the difficulties that they have. So it's kind of like physiotherapy for the brain, in a way? So it's kind of like physiotherapy for the brain, in a way? Absolutely. Is it possible to teach a child's brain how to learn? If there's a problem, don't be limited by conventional wisdom. Excellent. Excellent. Come on. Let's go! Let's go! And a notorious bank robber... And if I got away with it, good; that's one for me. I didn't have any remorse. A great escape. I said, 'We can get out, but you'll have to hijack a helicopter.' What did she say? What did she say? She said, '(CLICKS TONGUE) It could be done.' all in the name of love. This is a hijack. Fly me down. Prison, now. 'This is a hijack. We need to land down there.' Hijacking a helicopter, landing inside the jail. That escape that he orchestrated with Lucy was unique. But could they pull it off? Copyright Able 2014 Imagine if you're born with a mental block which prevents you from learning the basics ` reading, writing, maths. Even though you're intelligent, school becomes a nightmare. You get a label like dyslexic, diverted to the slow lane, and chances are you end up believing you're stupid. If that sounds familiar, well, you're not alone. About one in 10 people are dyslexic, but new thinking about thinking means many more people are reaching their true intellectual potential. STATIC DING! The human brain ` the most powerful machine yet discovered. But quite a few brains are malfunctioning. READS: 'Mum calls me a square-eyed zombie.' 12-year-old Nick Gander has an average IQ, but you wouldn't know it when you hear him read. '...and drink`' No, I made a mistake. He's been at school for seven years now, and he's struggling. So, what's going on inside Nick's head? And what if anything can be done to help him reach his full potential? 'Mum always... watch` want`' (SIGHS) Nick can't recall some words. And his writing? Well, there's room for improvement. < Everything that was on offer he had? < Everything that was on offer he had? Yeah, yeah. < And did that help at all? No. It's not as if his teachers weren't trying. We remember Nick going off to school as a really happy, outgoing little boy, very sociable, and that definitely changed I'd say, what, about age 7. It definitely changed. What was going on? Probably his frustration at not being able to keep up. Yeah, they asked if they could do formal assessment on him. The verdict? The verdict? He's dyslexic. How's it looking, Nick? Nick isn't alone. One in 10 people are dyslexic. PONDEROUS MUSIC So what's happening in a dyslexic brain? Well, in a normal brain like mine, information is stored in an orderly manner like this deck of cards in the correct suit, in the correct sequence. So if i want to retrieve, for example, the king of hearts I know that's it's in the hearts' column next to the queen. But dyslexic brains like Nick's store things randomly. This is what Nick's brain sees when he's tries to find that king of hearts. But we now know that dyslexia can be overcome. You can literally change your mind. That was really helpful, because it meant that we could actually start looking into it and finding out more about it. Jo and Mark Gander had been searching for years for a way to help Nick. We have tried everything, really ` after-school tuition, the NumberWorks. But then they heard about a woman called Barbara Arrowsmith. School and life were a real struggle. Barbara Arrowsmith is a Canadian who overcame her own learning disabilities and in turn created Arrowsmith, the learning programme that takes her name. I was identified in grade one as having a mental block because that was in the 1950s, and at that point, there wasn't even a term 'learning disability'. The message at that time was loud and clear. I was told I needed to learn to live with those limitations. I was given a life sentence. I was told that I would never learn like other children, that learning would always be a struggle. I struggled to learn how to read, to write, basic numeracy, understanding numbers. Barbara Arrowsmith says she did have two things going for her ` a good memory and a remarkable dad. I had a father who was a scientist and an inventor, and he instilled in me this belief that if there's a problem, don't be limited by conventional wisdom. And it was this belief, says Barbara, that enabled her to solve her own learning problems. By studying what neuroscientists were discovering about brains, she designed her own exercises. So I set out to create my first exercise for myself to see if I could address that difficulty. And that was the beginning of my transformation. And in doing so she transformed thousands of other lives. One of them is Nick Gander. Five days a week Nick travels more than 50km across Auckland to a decile-one school in Manurewa ` Finlayson Park, the only State school in the country teaching Barbara Arrowsmith's method of preparing brains for learning. OK, guys, see you this afternoon, eh. OK, guys, see you this afternoon, eh. OK, bye, Graeme. You need to target where the difficulty is, and the assessment will tell us, you know, the level of difficulty, which will then tell us the level of the exercise. Con-reverse, converse-ry. And the exercise Nick's doing here isn't reading and writing. It's brain gymnastics. Re-vas-con. What we have to do is identify for each one of those children which of the component parts are underperforming. And then we have exercises that are very different for each one of those. So every child will be on their own programme specific to the difficulties that they have. So it's kind of like physiotherapy for the brain in a way? So it's kind of like physiotherapy for the brain in a way? Absolutely. Eye patches, strange symbols and clocks. It might look unconventional, but it seems to get results. Big change, do you think? Yep, but there is going to be a huge change in the next couple years or terms. So how is what you are doing here helping your reading and writing? It stimulates the right side of the brain. So it's unlocking your brain? So it's unlocking your brain? Yep, unlocking the brain. To start with, you were lucky if he wrote one sentence, which was very untidy and hardly legible. Shirley Maihi Finlayson Park's principal. Exactly the same. Good girl. Now he's writing a page in his journal just like that and feeling confident about doing it, so those are huge strides for him. It's improved. He's still got a long way to go. It's a big journey for him, but, from where he was to where he is now, we can see progress. To begin with, the students who come here often have low self-esteem. I felt like I was, uh` I was dumb because I had a teacher aide, and I didn't feel right. Before he began Arrowsmith, 18-year-old Anton Bell he read very little. That was 10 months ago. It's opened up a new road, a new reading road. Now Anton's reading because he wants to. It is called Worth Dying For. It is the 15th book in the Lee Child series. Right. So you're reading them sequentially, are you? Up to 15 now. Yes. How long does it take to get through one of those? How long does it take to get through one of those? It takes me a couple of weeks. Once he was allowed to just sit and read for the sake of reading, he then found that he could. And then when he found that, wow, he just wants to continue. And we can see it in his writing as well. Because he's reading more, he wants to write more. But it takes commitment. how many hours a day do you need to do this programme to make a difference? Six and a half hours a day. It cannot be done as a little bit now and a little bit on Thursday. But only a few kids are getting this training. After the break ` the woman who wants it in all our schools. We've got children who have been delivered the curriculum, but can't access it. Can I help you? Can I help you? You know what this guy's problem is? What? What? He's so busy planning and building things for his customers that he's overlooking his most important project. that he's overlooking his most important project. Which is? His life ` planning and building his own business. Maybe he needs to talk to someone. He just needs to take the first step. ANZ has more local business bankers with the expertise to help you make your business a success. Can you look up for me? ENGINE ZOOMS It's not only Nick's reading and writing that is improving, his coordination is also much better. Driving a go-kart would have been difficult a year ago. # I want you to know... # it's time to go. It looks good, Nick. Really good work. Nick's been working six hours a day on exercises designed to improve his ability to process information. How many pages have you got to do tonight? I've got 12 all together. And now for the first time, he can tell the time. He struggled with that. So he was very excited when he said he wanted a watch with hands, and he could actually use it. Would the progress he's made in the past 10 months be greater than the previous six years? Yeah, I'd say so. It's easy to see his writing's improved, definitely. How many parents do you think there are struggling to find help for dyslexic children? I keep meeting people every day experiencing similar problems with their children and they all want to find help. They're all` Yeah. Looking for solutions that the traditional education system doesn't seem to be able to provide. They get delivered the curriculum, but can't access it. The platform isn't there. They're not wired. Anne Gaze runs the charity which introduced Arrowsmith into NZ. I had put it into schools. That was great. There would be a number of children who would be profoundly influenced by the programme. But there's a problem. When did you realise you had the wrong programme? Cost. (LAUGHS) The costs were significant. It's a full profit, and it has commissioned agents. Arrowsmith isn't cheap. Parents like Mark and Jo Gander are paying $14,000 a year for Nick to attend. Most Kiwi parents can't afford that. But I needed to get it to the masses, so I started hunting. Then she found Feuerstein. It was a not-for-profit. It was $35 per child per year. It was significantly researched. You have six pieces. Which one do you have to put there? Named after developmental psychologist Professor Reuven Feuerstein, this programme is taught in 40 countries. It's implemented in the school as a curriculum subject. It teaches the children to learn. It actually forms the foundation, somewhere for the content to go. It's not just for our learning-impaired. It is for our normative, our gifted children, those with significant disabilities such as autism and dyslexia. If it's the same student that keeps giving me one-word answers, then that student needs further mediation. And now it's here. Last month Feuerstein trainers started teaching NZ teachers and parents ` among them Jo Gander, Nick's mum. Having a week training there was very enlightening as to how you can take a classroom of children and teach them thinking skills, and strengthen their cognitive functions so that they actually have the ability to learn. I see Feuerstein having a place in every classroom in every school in NZ. You went along to learn how to become a mediator. Will you be become one? I will be, hopefully very soon. Feuerstein and Arrowsmith are similar. Anne Gaze thinks Feuerstein has the edge. Ideally, the Feuerstein programme could go into schools in year one and two and just do that exclusively, topped up with a bit of reading and math. Because it's teaching the child how to learn. It's actually growing the foundation, the plate to the cake so the content has somewhere to go. So now there are now two thinking programmes itching to get into more NZ classrooms. The experts have known for ages that you can modify the brain in this way. In medicine and science, absolutely, but not in education. The globe has just woken up to cognitive intervention, for the ability for these children to have their brains rewired. Would Feuerstein help students that aren't dyslexic? None of us all fire on six cylinders. There is a weakness, at least one weakness in all of us. So your working memory, for instance, could be just above the 50th percentile, so when you've sat exams you've passed them. You've seen the result and thought, 'I thought I would have done better, 'not realising that you were probably only about 52 percentile in working memory.' You take the programme and you take your working memory up to 92, and where does that take you? And it's for people of all ages? And it's for people of all ages? Any age. Age 5 to 95. Your brain does not stop moving, growing, regenerating. Anne gaze is like an Energizer bunny ` relentless. And she's only just begun. all we're doing is taking science and medicine into our 140,000 learning-impaired to children in NZ. But not just them, it's going through to the normative and the gifted. It's for all children, because we all need to be able to rewire certain parts of our brain. Nick gander is one of the lucky ones. He's already rewiring his brain, but there are one in 10 children in the rest of our 2500 schools who aren't. I've been at the same school for nearly 10 years, and they are still offering the same remedial programme. Why aren't we using this programme? Because clearly nothing else has worked. The Feuerstein Institute has now teamed up with the Centre for Brain Research in Auckland. They aim to bring out a brain-training programme tailored for NZ schools in 2017. After the break, it has to be seen to be believed ` Australia's most daring prison escape. Could they pull it off? What did you say to Lucy? What did you say to Lucy? I said, 'We can get out, but you'll have to hijack a helicopter.' 'It sounds simple.' That's what I said. What did she say? What did she say? She said it could be done. Fly me down to prison now. Go! Go! # Let me out of here! ROTORS WHIRR Welcome back. This is the untold true story about the most daring prison escape in Australian history. It's a plot straight from a Hollywood movie ` a hijacked helicopter landing inside a jail to pluck up a dashing and dangerous criminal and take him to freedom. In 1999, Lucy Dudko, the Russian lover of bank robber John Killick, committed the only crime of her life and all in the name of love. Red Lucy and her boyfriend made world headlines but only now can the whole story be told. Recently and very briefly, Killick was a free man and gave his first and only interview to Mike Willesee. John Reginald Killick is Australian crime royalty, if you can call it that. He was what I would call a career criminal. He had a very lengthy history for matters of violence, including armed robbery. He was a bank robber and a jewel thief. He's also a brilliant chess champion. But most of all, he's an old-fashioned escape artist. From banks, particularly good, but more so from jails. That escape that he orchestrated with Lucy was unique and reasonably well planned. Lucy ` 'Red Lucy' ` the sexy Russian librarian who became Killick's lover and helped him stage Australia's greatest jail break. What did you say to Lucy? What did you say to Lucy? I said, 'We can get out, but you'll have to hijack a helicopter.' 'Sounds simple.' That's what I said. What did she say? What did she say? She said it could be done. Fly me down. Prison now. Go. Go. # Let me out of here. Hurry up! C'mon, Lucy. Let's go. Let's go! It was the great escape... # All in the name of liberty... Daring jail break... Daring jail break... Hijacked... Daring jail break... Hijacked... ...helicopter. ...that made world headlines. # All in the name of liberty. Weeks on the run... # Got to be free. ...before one mistake put the lovers who 'couldn't bear to be apart' behind bars. John Killick, Lucy Dudko, you are surrounded. His periods of freedom have been brief, but it hasn't stopped Killick living life in the fast lane. You know, he wonders why I get upset. Well, have a look at that. Well, have a look at that. Stop it. Please. Now, the story he's never told about the love of his life and the life led on the other side of the law. COUNTRY MUSIC Hi, John. Hi, John. Hello, Mike. Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Really. Are you allowed to be here? Are you allowed to be here? I am, yes. Because you are on` freshly on parole, and you've got very strict reporting provisions, don't you? I certainly have. You can see. Can you take that off? I can't. If I took it off, they would be here to arrest me straight away. From the time he was a teen, Killick has been trying to checkmate and outrun the law. # And my dear mother loved me when I was quite young... He loved his mum, but feared his dad - a professional boxer from the tough inner-city suburb of Balmain in Sydney. When he got drunk, he got violent. I can remember times when we were hiding under the house, me and my brother and my mother. Tell me about your mother. Tell me about your mother. I adored my mother. To me, she was everything when I was young, and I lost her when I was 17, and it really shook me up. # Lord, have mercy on my wicked son. How did you lose her? How did you lose her? She killed herself. What did you do? Just packed my bags and said to Dad, 'I'm leaving. I'm not coming back.' The day Mum died, I said, 'It's me against the world.' And I mean that. That's coming from the heart. Killick lived on his wits and other people's money. His first arrest was over a raffle-ticket scam. Later came bank-book forgeries and jewel-shop robberies. Prison was just a matter of time. So where did you spend your 18th birthday? 18th birthday at Long Bay. 18th birthday at Long Bay. 19th? Uh, 19th, uh... Bathurst. 20th birthday? Bathurst. 21st birthday? 21st birthday? Yeah, Bathurst, yep, yep. Not a good way to grow up, is it? No, it isn't. Well, it's a terrible way. Jails were fairly tough in those days too. # Once threw a party in the county gaol... He was 18 when he escaped for the first time. It would become a lifetime habit. # You shoulda heard that locked-up jailbird sing... I took off, and they chased me. They fired shots at me, actually. While being escorted to Bathurst Court House for sentencing, Killick surprised his guards and bolted. I hid in a chook pen. An old lady seen me in her chook pen and told them where I was, and they got me. The chooks gave me up, yeah. When he got out of Bathurst, he went back to Sydney. Killick's favourite pastime was punting on the ponies. He thought it was a hobby, but it was an addiction. When I walked on a racecourse, you know, just the exhilaration was there. And being an optimist, I always thought, 'I can win'. But that's not robbing people; that's gambling. Yeah, I know. But when I lost, then I'd rob. And to make real money, he began robbing banks. It was me against the banks, you know? I hated banks ` they foreclosed on my dad's place. We lost our house, we went from a good house to a small house. When I ran into those banks, it's me against them. I'm getting the money, you know? And if I got away with it ` good, that's one for me. I didn't have any remorse, nothing. His first heist was the Commonwealth Bank at Canley Heights in Sydney's west. He was 24, wore a clown mask, and walked in carrying a rifle. He fired a warning shot into the floor and walked out with �1300 ` $40,000 in today's money. I want to do something now that will surprise you. Right. > Right. > May frighten you. Mm-hm. > Mm-hm. > And I want to get your reaction. Mm-hm. > And I want to get your reaction. OK. > OK, you're this far apart, the guy's got a gun. 'Killick claims he only ever fired to intimidate...' I'm terrified. I would be. '...never to kill.' Yeah. But that still leaves traumatised victims. If I feel bad about anything, I feel bad about that. Briefly, for five years, Killick says he put down his guns and went straight and it was love that helped turn him around. # I put a spell on you,... In 1973, he met 33-year-old Gloria Bonafede at a chess tournament. # ...cos you're mine! She was a secretary and had no idea that this dashing chess player had a criminal past. # You better stop the things you do. It went for about seven weeks, this chess tournament, and right near the end, I said to her, 'If I win this tournament, we got to have a date.' I said, 'Yes, I would go, yes'. And I won it. I won the tournament. When did he tell you about his criminal background? Well, not right away. Um, but I knew he was different, and I knew I was missing something. I just said, 'What did you do?' And he just said, 'I rob banks'. So I suppose, um, taken aback. Didn't stop you? Didn't stop you? No. They settled down, bought a local convenience store and before too long, Gloria fell pregnant. Life was good, but then Killick got back on the punt. John was gambling and he, at one point, had a bad, disastrous day. Came home one night and said to Gloria, 'I have lost the shop.' Can you imagine what that can do to a marriage? I lost the shop to an SP bookie. I think he went from horses to dogs and at the end of the day, we didn't have anything. I had a $200 limit. I lost the $200, and I said, 'Listen, make that $400.' He said, 'Are you sure you know what you're doing?' and I said, 'Yeah, I know what I am doing.' She was shocked. I mean, she was, um,... about eight months pregnant. And... It's a horrible thing, and it's one of the worst things that I've done. Soon after, Gloria gave birth to their son, John Jnr. But with their business gone and another mouth to feed, Killick needed money. Behind Gloria's back, he started planning another bank job. # The man has a gun. He knows how to use it. So you've lost your apartment. You've lost your corner store business that you had with him, and he was stealing. How did you put up with that? (SIGHS) Because I didn't want to lose him. But try though she did, the marriage didn't survive. By 1978, it was over and Killick went back to his old ways. He was caught and convicted for five more bank robberies and in and out of prison. It was here at the casualty section of the PA Hospital that a young female accomplice armed with a gun helped Killick make his escape. In 1983, while being escorted to hospital for a supposed eye injury, he sensationally escaped from Brisbane's Boggo Road Gaol with the help of another of his lovers. Still a fugitive, Killick moved to Canberra and in 1998, met a beautiful librarian called Lucy Dudko. Born in Moscow and an accomplished horsewoman, she'd come to Australia with her Russian husband. That marriage was dead, and that's a fact. She and Killick met at a party, and the attraction was mutual. Lucy is intelligent. She's artistic, she's sexy. Killick's love for 'Red Lucy' would soon lead to Australia's most daring prison escape. Thinking about fixing? Talk to NZ's favourite home loan provider. You'll get a great rate, plus, for a limited time, get up to $3000 cash for new lending. Conditions apply. Talk to us today. 1 Lucy Dudko had never committed a crime until she met and fell obsessively in love with the notorious bank robber, John Killick, and he with her. We lived together for pretty close to 18 months. That 18 months, we spent 24 hours a day together most of the time. I think a woman's got to have femininity and a sense of humour for me, and she had both. And the crime this Russian beauty would soon commit would be a crime of passion. In the late '90s, Killick was one step in front of the law. Wanted in Queensland for escaping Boggo Road Gaol, he and 'Red Lucy' were in New South Wales and constantly on the move. We'd taken off, were on the run. There was no money. I robbed a bank in October, one at Mittagong, and got away with it. # How long can we live this way? How long till the rain stops coming down? He got away with $32,000 and blew most of it gambling. He needed more. 10 minutes from Mittagong is Bowral, a pretty town south of Sydney with an NAB bank ripe for the picking. In January 1999, wearing a stocking on his face, a black wig and a baseball cap, Killick went to make a withdrawal. John Killick, desperate for money, walked into this bank holding a 0.32 automatic pistol. The tellers filled his bag, but they also placed in the bag a red dye bomb. That's it, come on, come on! Let's go! Let's go! Killick had another problem ` he was spotted by an off-duty policeman using the ATM outside. I turned and went out of the bank, and I saw him from the corner of my eye, and he saw me. Killick's gone into the bank around lunchtime, armed with a pistol, and he's demanded money from the teller. He got about $40,000, threw it in a bag and then ran out of the bank and went bolting through here. And he was being chased? And he was being chased? Yes, by an off-duty officer. When I started to run, the dye bomb went off. Red smoke started to come out of the bag. A bit of a giveaway, isn't it? He was running but I saw him turn left and run into Station St. I kept running after him. It was a dead end, and he came down. There was a car separating us. He was saying, 'Do you want a <BLEEP>ing go, do ya? It's a real` I've got a real gun.' He picked up a rock and he hurled at me and missed by about 3 inches. I fired a shot over his head. As I got down, I heard a bang or... It was more like a pop, a loud pop. COMMS: Police, emergency. COMMS: Police, emergency. Police, emergency. John Bright, National Bank, Bowral. We've got an off-duty officer of yours. The bank's been held up, and he's shooting at the off-duty officer down near the railway station in Bowral. Killick fired two more shots. He was pointing the pistol at me. I could tell it was coming at me. One was in the ground. Another one was over his head, way over his head. The off-duty cop kept chasing. He sounds like a pretty brave police officer. That was my misfortune because when I went to Bowral Police Station, when I was down there, they said, 'You were unlucky because he's the only guy that would've chased you unarmed.' I moved to the right and seen him disappearing between those two buildings. By now, reinforcements were on the way. I was driving up this way. Detective Sergeant Mark MacDonald was in one of seven police cars searching Bowral when he spotted an exhausted Killick in this backstreet. And as I got here, I jumped out, arrested him. He said, 'I'm not gonna try to escape ` 'I've got a heart condition.' With his gun coloured red by the dye, Killick was arrested and handcuffed. # I need a fix, cos I'm going down. While police questioned him, on the outside, his lover, Lucy, was beside herself with grief and turned to Killick's former wife, Gloria, for support. I said to her, 'Well, look, I've got another bedroom. If you want to come here, you're quite` 'I'm quite happy to have you.' While Lucy stayed with Gloria, Killick was banged up in Silverwater jail, in Sydney's west, awaiting a very long sentence. The love of his life, Lucy, was visiting him three times a week and the 57-year-old Killick decided he wanted to spend no more of his life in jail. Whose idea was it to hijack a helicopter? Ah, well... We agreed that I was going to try and escape. We agreed. I said that, 'Look, we can get out, but you'll have to hijack a helicopter. 'It sounds simple.' That's what I said. It was the year before the Sydney Olympics, and Lucy's first step was to take a joy-flight over the stadium site, but what she really wanted to see was Silverwater jail, just to the north. She came back ` she was all excited ` and said, 'It can be done.' You also told her she'd have to have guns. That's right. Well, I had a couple of guns put away. Lucy was armed and dangerous, but she didn't stop there. She then hired the classic Charles Bronson movie Breakout about a helicopter escape from jail. The night before the day of the escape, Lucy had dinner with Killick's ex-wife, Gloria. Did you know anything was going on? No. I didn't know anything was going on, of that nature or any other. She seemed to be tense. She was struggling. She was struggling to live without him. No, I had no idea that something as dramatic as that was about to occur. Were you nervous? I was a mass of nerves, really, and I couldn't sleep most that night. Can you imagine what sort of date that would be, if I didn't turn up? She's hired a helicopter, you know. On March 25, 1999, Lucy knew that just before 10am her lover, John Killick, would be in the jail's exercise yard. Just after 9, she boarded another joy-flight, the only passenger in a tiny three-seat chopper. And as we came towards the Olympic site, ah, she was staring fairly intently ahead and she says, 'Oh, is that a jail ahead?' And I said, 'Yeah, it is.' At the controls that day was pilot Tim Joyce. As we came around the jail, I was talking on the radio to another helicopter that was passing close behind us. She opened the purse and pulled out a pistol, pushed it to the side of my head and said, 'It's a hijack.' This is a hijack! Fly me down! Prison, now! 'This is a hijack' and then she said, 'We need to land down there'. Lucy had done her homework and wasn't fooled when Joyce tried to send a distress signal via the helicopter's transponder. Screamed at me, 'No transponder!' and whacked me across the wrist with a pistol. They were now above Silverwater prison. She said, 'We'll land there, pick somebody up.' # I want to get away. # I want to fly away, yeah. Climbed in and then he put the barrel of a machine gun in my ribs. Then I started hearing shots. Did you fire? Did you fire? I didn't fire. One of the officers fired. How many shots? How many shots? Three. He hit us twice. In the high stress and mayhem, as the guards opened fire, Lucy said to Killick, 'We have no car. 'I've forgotten the keys.' My mind was racing. 'What are we going to do when we get out of the chopper? 'We haven't got a car. We're going to have everybody in Australia looking for us very soon.' That one slipped her mind. She didn't bring the keys to the car. But she brought the chopper. (LAUGHS) I was still pretty uptight because I knew we were far from home at that stage. We are in a small chopper. We were going very slow. He said, 'Look...' I said, 'Can't you make it go any faster?' He said, 'Look, mate, you're unlucky - 'this is one of the slowest choppers in Australia.' After a 10-minute flight Tim Joyce landed the Bell 47 here, about 7km from Silverwater prison. By then, Killick knew what he had to do. He and Lucy tied up their pilot and then stopped a passing car. I said, 'I need you to drive us somewhere. If you don't do it, I'll shoot you in the knee.' They headed to North Sydney station and then caught a train south to Goulburn. In a cheap motel, Killick dyed his hair. He and Lucy kept moving, travelling on trains and buses, heading south to Victoria. In all, they would spend 45 days hiding from the law while making headlines around the world. They'd been all over Victoria, and they were all over the media. They were getting desperate. The last chance they had to get the money they needed was a risky one and miles away in Sydney. How did you get caught? We came back to Sydney to get some money from a guy that just didn't turn up. It was a criminal mate who owed Killick money, but when he didn't front, he had to change plan. He also feared the police were closing in. And I said to Lucy, I said, 'We're really in trouble because you can outsmart 'em every day. 'They've only got to once outsmart you, and you're gone. That's where the odds are against you.' # These smiling eyes are just a mirror for... At the caravan park on the outskirts of Sydney, John and Lucy decided that next day, they'd go bush, and they went to bed unaware that earlier that day, they'd been seen. And very early the next morning, the game was up. John and Lucy had spent their last night together. Probably 2 in the morning, and we were asleep. We were leaving at 6 and we heard ` and it's something I'll never forget ` on the loudspeakers. You think you're dreaming. 'John Killick, Lucy Dudko, you are surrounded. Put your weapons down, step outside.' SPEAKER: John Killick, Lucy Dudko put down your weapons, come out with your hands up. You are surrounded. So, was that to be the end of their love affair? Find out after the break. And John Killick comes face to face with one of his victims, the pilot he hijacked at gunpoint. I really am dreadfully sorry for how I behaved. I want to genuinely say this. I know people apologise, and it's just words. But I genuinely apologise. I know what I did. I know what` the effect it could have on you and family. And I've wanted to do this for a long time. No, I appreciate it, and I'm glad to see you; you're out finally. Welcome back. John Killick pulled off Australia's most daring prison escape. when his Russian lover, Lucy Dudko, hijacked a helicopter and plucked him to freedom. They evaded police for weeks, but when they were caught, it wasn't the end of their love affair. Here's Mike Willesee again. John Killick and his lover, Lucy Dudko, couldn't bear to be apart. When he was locked up for robbing this bank in Bowral in 1999, a love-struck Lucy committed the first crime of her life. She hijacked a helicopter... I said, 'We can get out, but you'll have to hijack a helicopter.' ...to break him out of jail. Fly me down. Prison now. Go! Go! Come on, Lucy. Let's go! Go! # All in the name of liberty. After 45 days on the run, their luck ran out. Killick got 28 years and was sent to New South Wales' highest security jail, Goulburn SuperMax. 23 hours a day in a cell. Lucy, for her first and only offence got 10 years and was dispatched to Mulawa women's prison. # Welcome to your life. # There's no turning back. But even as they sat in separate jails, their love for each other stayed strong. They kept in touch the only way possible. Can you read one? 'They wrote over 4000 letters.' The day we were arrested. This is the very first. 'Thinking about you all the time. I love you.' And another. 'Today is six years since that historical event. 'I remember the day as if it happened yesterday.' Not only letters, but drawings Lucy did of John, including this one of her locked-up lover in a prison yard. After five years in SuperMax, Killick was then transferred to Lithgow, then Wellington, then Parklea, then Nowra prison. But he never stopped writing, nor Lucy ` not for years. Then one day out of the blue came a 'Dear John' letter ending their affair. 2111 was written on the 2/5/05. 'I have to tell you something which I should have told you a long time ago, 'cos this is a very important issue for me. 'For the past month, I've been doing Bible study, and I was taking it very serious.' In prison, Lucy had found God. She had visits from the Church. She had studied with these Christian people. She felt that that was what she wanted to do ` to leave the wrongdoing behind her. On May 9 2006, Lucy Dudko became a free woman. On the outside, she changed her name and went into hiding. Eight years later, on April 15 this year, John Killick was finally released into the arms of his ex-wife, Gloria, his daughter-in-law and his son, John Jnr. I think I recognise that bloke! Gidday, Dad. John, gidday, mate. John, gidday, mate. How are ya? It was a special reunion. You're looking all right, buddy. You're looking all right, buddy. So are you. You're still a handsome bugger, aren't ya? Not as good as you. And then another important reunion ` one high on Killick's bucket list. There is an apology he wants to make to one of his victims ` the pilot, who with the gun to his head, plucked Killick out of prison 15 years ago. I really am dreadfully sorry for how I behaved. I want to genuinely say this. I know people apologise, and it's just words. But I genuinely apologise. I know what I did. I know what` the effect it could have had on you and the family, and I wanted to do this for a long time. Nah, I appreciate it. I'm glad to see you` you're out finally. But freedom has its price, and there's one reunion that doesn't take place. Lucy Dudko is strictly off limits to John Killick. I'm not allowed to contact her, under condition of my parole, and, um, so if I wanna see her, I gotta wait till I'm 80. I might knock on her door when I'm 80, say, 'Let's go and have a coffee.' After 15 years in jail, Killick spent just 11 weeks as a free man. Yeah, I feel human again. I've seen a lot of people, done a lot of things. You can't put a price tag on it. You see, there was another little matter hanging over his head. his escape from Brisbane's Boggo Road prison in 1983. # I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger. Rather than fight extradition, John Killick took himself to Brisbane to hand himself in. I did those things. The past is coming back to catch up, and I gotta do it. It's his eighth time behind bars, and John Killick says it's his last. If I hadn't taken off in a helicopter, none of this would have went on, and I've have been there a long time ago, and I would have been forgotten. KEYS JANGLE Killick must now abide by extremely tough parole conditions and, as you saw in that story, wears an ankle monitor full time. That's our show for tonight. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter `