Darko “Dougie” Desic – a fugitive turned handyman turned Sydney local identity – has been released from immigration detention and granted a permanent visa to live in Australia.
And for the first time in decades, he now has a Medicare card, along with the right to stay in his adopted homeland.
Desic – known across Sydney’s northern beaches as ‘Dougie’ – made global headlines last year when he handed himself into New South Wales police after 29 years at large, offering officers at the Dee Why station the understatement: “I believe you’ve been looking for me.”
Now aged 65, Desic had escaped from Grafton prison in 1992, with a little over a year and a half left to serve on a 44-month sentence for cultivating cannabis, because he feared being deported to Yugoslavia and conscripted into the Yugoslav army, then in the midst of a brutal civil war.
In the nearly three decades since his escape, Desic had been hiding in plain sight, becoming something of an identity on Sydney’s northern beaches. He built a life as an odd-jobbing tradesman, labourer and much-loved member of the beaches community.
But when Covid shut down his informal work and the house he was living in was sold, Desic was left homeless, sleeping on sand dunes. He turned himself in to secure a roof over his head in prison.
Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson sentenced Desic to serve the remaining 19 months of his sentence as well as an additional two months for escaping.
After his new sentence expired in December last year – and facing the unique prospect of potential removal to a country that no longer existed, given the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia dissolved in 1992 - Desic was moved into Villawood immigration detention centre.
But on Monday, Desic was granted a permanent visa to live in Australia as well as a Medicare card.
During his years on the run he never had access to Medicare, notoriously pulling teeth out himself with pliers when they’d rotted.
He had also been forced to eschew other forms of identification such as a driver’s licence, meaning he was forced to walk or catch buses to jobs all over Sydney. Without any legal identity he could not claim Centrelink or any other social supports.
Since his return to prison, a community wide campaign to “Free Dougie” had galvanised Sydney’s northern beaches, with campaigns to parliamentarians and public petitions.
A supporter, Peter Higgins, announced Desic’s release on the Help Darko “Dougie” Desic Facebook page: “Dougie is being released today and back to Avalon. Hip Hip Hooray. Thank you for everyone’s amazing support.”
Desic’s lawyer, Paul McGirr, said Desic had safe accommodation and was with friends on his return to his northern beaches community.
“It’s a common sense decision. I thank the powers that be for their pretty quick decision. It’s great news for Dougie, and for his community, it’s given a lot of us renewed hope in the Australia we knew and grew up in.
“So many people worked very hard on this matter. Some of them hadn’t even met Dougie but were prepared to put their names and money and reputation to support him.”
McGirr said Desic had been “humbled” by the groundswell of community support.
“It’ll take a while to sink in, he’s just with his mates at the moment. He’s been returned to the northern beaches community where he’s from, and now he just wants to get on with his life and contribute to Australia.”
As recently as two days ago, Desic had been still waiting for news on his future, posting online: “A man who doesn’t desire his freedom slowly becomes a slave.”
