ADELAIDE (AP)--A man known as Australia's "serial pest" appeared in court Friday on charges of helping a group of asylum seekers escape an immigrant detention center. Peter Michael Howard, 32, was charged with aiding and abetting the escape last Thursday. He traveled in a minibus with some of the escapees to Port Augusta, a town 200 kilometers south of the Woomera detention camp, and gave them food. He was later caught at Tumby Bay, 350 kilometers south of Woomera.
Howard, also known as Peter Hore, has been nicknamed a "serial pest" by Australia's media for gatecrashing such events as an Australian Open tennis match and the funeral of INXS singer Michael Hutchence.
Howard's lawyer, Adam Gaite, told the Adelaide Magistrates Court that his client did not mastermind the Woomera breakout.
"In fact ... it could be said he acted in a humanitarian way," Gaite said.
Howard was not required to enter a plea and was refused bail because of fears he might interfere with police efforts to find 10 asylum seekers still on the run after the June 27 breakout. The case was adjourned until July 12.
A total of 35 Afghans, Iranians and Iraqis broke out of the detention camp in Woomera last Thursday night. Refugee activists aided their escape by using cars to haul down fences surrounding the former missile testing base.
Others have also been charged with aiding and abetting the asylum seekers.
All of those who broke out of Woomera had had their asylum applications rejected and were being held pending the outcome of appeals, the immigration department has said.
(This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires)
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