SAMOA – Samoa is reeling this week in the wake of a damning current affairs report by Australia’s 60 Minutes programme.

The report, called Paradise Lost, presented the story of Australian tourist Angie Jackson who was raped by an escaped prisoner.

“It’s not our intention to ruin its tourism industry,” 60 Minutes began the story. “But if you’re thinking of holidaying in Samoa, you’d be wise to think again.

“The brochures show an idyllic South Pacific paradise and promise a welcome as warm as the sun. But that can never be the truth while a sadistic thug named Lauititi Tualima lives there.

“He’s Samoa’s most dangerous criminal. Remarkably he spends most of his time in prison, but security there is such a joke, it’s no deterrent to Tualima’s life of extreme violence.

“Australian tourists Angie Jackson and Tommy Williams found themselves prey to this man and they’re very lucky to still be alive.”

The couple from Tasmania recounted their ordeal – and their pursuit of justice – with reporter Liam Bartlett in a gut-wrenching interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

They said they were lucky to escape with their lives last September when an on-the-run Tualima – who had escaped jail where he was serving a sentence for a litany of crimes including rape, assault and theft a month earlier – attacked them on the last night of their honeymoon holiday.

At 2.00am in the morning he invaded their accommodation, tied them up and then raped the young woman.

Tualima was eventually arrested, charged with a range of offences including rape and robbery, and returned to jail.

Tualima is not only a serial criminal, but a serial prison escapee, who had been on the run when he attacked the couple, and has since escaped twice more to offend again.

Reporter Bartlett travelled to Samoa to watch Tualima go to court on June 27 and eventually plead guilty to the attack.

He said he discovered a pattern of escape and prison security so flawed that it should act as a warning to all tourists.

Tualima had escaped jail, where he had been given a lengthy sentence for crimes including rape, robbery and violence, and been on the run for about a month before his attack the Australian honeymooners last September.

“Yet after that he was able to escape two more times,” Bartlett said.

“So he escaped once and attacked Tom and Angie. He was caught for that, sent back to jail, and escaped again early this year, only to be caught again after in which he stole about $50,000 in cash.

“And the third time he escaped, just three months ago, he almost killed a Chinese businessman. He hit him over the head with a machete and left him for dead.”

“The thing is, it’s not just him. It’s the whole place. That’s why we are saying this is a real warning signal, because tourists don’t know this about Samoa’s prison system,” Bartlett said.

“Tualima, and his other dangerous mates, who are supposed to be in a maximum security facility are just free to sort of wander off, and tourists just don’t know this.”

As part of Sunday’s report, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi gave an assurance that his government is working to improve security at Tafa’igata Prison.

“Basic security, we are taking care of that now,” Tuilaepa responded to a question from Bartlett about erecting a decent security fence at the prison.

Asked if the reporting of the attack on the Jacksons has hurt the tourism industry in Samoa, Tuilaepa said he wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Really I don’t know – remember this is one kind of attack that has happened.”

Pressed on a number of offenses Tualima had committed on multiple occasions where he had run away from the prison, Tuilaepa insisted that he was only interested in talking about the “one kind of attack.”

“I’m telling you that we are talking about one kind of attack – rape by a prisoner.”

Reminded that Tualima nearly killed a Chinese businessman during one of his escapes, Tuilaepa said: “No, I’m saying there is only one prisoner who has done this attack, and he is now in the security cell.

“But he has escaped three times in the last eight months,” Bartlett insisted.

“And he has been caught three times,” Tuilaepa said.

The prime minister said what happened to the couple was very unfortunate.

“It’s just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Tuilaepa said.

“Any prison in the world, any prison fence anywhere in the world, if you have a prisoner who wants to get out, they could always find ways of getting out.”

“You must also remember that Samoa has just become a country that has just graduated out of the least developing country. You cannot just come and expect us to be like Australia.”

- PNC sources