After visiting Australia in the 1980s, Darko returns home to Yugoslavia but senses trouble coming. He sees the rise of nationalism and early signs of conflict looming. Darko heads back to the safety of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Enamoured by the laid-back lifestyle, Darko learns to grow and sell weed. He plans to buy his dream house in Palm Beach but gets greedy. This fit, young, former communist commissar, with a taste for Russian literature decides to stay in Australia any way he can.  

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It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon in 2021, when Darko Desic arrives, unannounced, at a police station, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. He claims to have escaped from prison 30 years before and now wants to hand himself in. The police are confused. There’s no record of him on their files. The officers eventually arrest him. When news emerges of Darko’s 30 years on the run, the world is amazed, and baffled. How did he escape? How did he evade capture for so long, living under the noses of the police? And who the hell is Darko Desic? Journalist Tim Elliott tracks Darko down and sits down with him for a tell-all interview.  

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At just 13 years old, Thomas Carrick was placed under covert surveillance by the Australian Federal Police. Believing he was speaking to ISIS operatives online, Thomas was in fact engaging with undercover officers, conversations that would eventually see him charged with terrorism offences.

The AFP knew Thomas lived with autism and an intellectual disability. Still, they pursued him in a way a judge later described as ‘grooming’ him for terrorism.

So, was Thomas ever a real threat? Or just a vulnerable boy pulled into a fantasy world by those meant to protect him?

In this episode, counter-terrorism expert Peta Lowe - who also features in Secrets We Keep: Lone Actor - unpacks the Carrick case and what it reveals about the growing risk of youth radicalisation in Australia.

To hear more content like this, listen to Crime Insiders wherever you get your podcasts. 

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In Jailbreak, we hear the extraordinary story of a fugitive who lived for 30 years on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. The reclusive Darko Desic (prolific weed grower, prison escapee and martial arts expert) tells his story for the first time; a story of resilience and discipline.  

In following Darko’s remarkable journey, Jailbreak explores eternal truths about free will and fate, crime and punishment, and the search for meaning. 

Jailbreak is an original podcast from LiSTNR.  

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Why did Joey decide to use the terrorist's name? Where are far-right extremist communities gathering now? 

In this bonus Q&A episode, Joey answers your questions about making the Lone Actor podcast.

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Journalist and host of the Weekend Briefing Antointette Lattouf sits down with Joey Watson to go beyond the investigation. Find out how Joey came to the story, and how his family history influences his work. 

Have a question for Joey? Email [email protected].

You can hear more from Antointette every Saturday on the Weekend Briefing. 

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Having spent years tracing the terrorist, Joey is still left with unanswered questions. 

Parts of the manifesto don’t match the online worlds Joey has investigated — references to revolution, societal collapse, and a call for chaos. 

Joey’s search leads to a shadowy neo-Nazi terror network that emerged in the years before the attack. Could this be the missing link in the terrorist’s radicalisation to violence? 

If you have a question for Joey, email [email protected]

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After the attack, authorities in Austria learnt that the terrorist had been linked to a high-profile extremist in their country – Martin Sellner.  

The terrorist had given Sellner a sizeable donation, and had visited Austria four months before the attack. So, the question was asked – did Sellner and the terrorist have contact? 

However, the Austrian investigation into the links between the pair was compromised. Joey travels to Vienna to find out what happened. 

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Two trips to the Balkans, in South-Eastern Europe might hold the key to the terrorist's mindset in the years before the attack. This is a region steeped in nationalist history and revered by the far-right, and the details of his time here are murky. 

Joey follows the terrorist to the other side of the world, searching for more clues about his radicalisation, trying to find out if anyone in Europe knew what was coming. 

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On the afternoon of the attack, a member of a private Facebook group for Australian extremists comments that the terrorist had been “in the scene for a while”. 

Digging through an archive of Facebook posts, Joey Watson uncovers just how deep those connections ran. 

Joey finds the terrorist had been in contact with Australian extremists for years – including signalling the violence that he would go on to commit.  

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