Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

In October 1827, nine convicts who had endured years of unimaginable cruelty at the hands of the system opted for 'state-assisted' escape. Five terrified witnesses— their hands and feet bound—were forced to watch as the chained convicts seized Constable George Rex and drowned him in the tannin-stained waters of the harbour. When the sentence of death was pronounced upon them,...