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'Fund a Fugitive' crowd sourcing page for Bali prison escapee shut down for 'violating terms'

A GoFundMe page set up to a support Perth man who escaped from a Bali jail and remains on the run has been shut down for “violating” the site’s terms.

Escapee Shaun Edward Davidson appears to be taunting police through Facebook one month after he and three others tunnelled out of Bali’s Kerobokan prison.

Two of the escapees have been arrested, however Davidson and Malaysian man Tee Kok King remain at large.

A GoFundMe page for Bali prison fugitive Shaun Edward Davidson (pictured in 2016) has been shut down days after it was set up. Picture: AAP
A GoFundMe page for Bali prison fugitive Shaun Edward Davidson (pictured in 2016) has been shut down days after it was set up. Picture: AAP

The now deactivated crowd funding page “Fund a Fugitive”, which appeared over the weekend asking people to "Dig deep like did", was believed to have been set up by Davidson’s friends, going by the pseudonym Beanna Winner.

It raised only $65 of its $50,000 goal, which site administrators have refunded, according to News Corp.

GoFundMe said it acted quickly to close down the account as soon as it was brought to their attention.

“This campaign violated GoFundMe’s terms of service. The campaign in question was quickly removed from the site and any donations have been automatically refunded,” GoFundMe’s head of communications Kelly Galvin said Tuesday.


It is believed a man named Jason Lee Marzoli is behind the online funding account, and also claims to be the administrator of the Shaun Davidson Facebook fan page.

Before it was shut down, the GoFundMe page stated (sic): “If u have loved Shauns ‘catch me if u can’ antics as much as we have so far and just like us u want to keep this hilarious saga going then donate.”

“Dig deep for australias most loveable fugitive Shaun Davidson as he dug deep aswell lol. Don’t crus the glory be a part of the story donate hell appreciate.”

The four foreign inmates escaped Bali's prison through a 50x75cm hole at the prison's wall that connects to a 15 metre long water tunnel heading towards a main street. Picture: 7 News
The four foreign inmates escaped Bali's prison through a 50x75cm hole at the prison's wall that connects to a 15 metre long water tunnel heading towards a main street. Picture: 7 News

Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev and Indian Sayed Mohammed Said were caught at a hotel in Dili, East Timor, last month after arriving on a boat illegally from Indonesia.

The pair were originally caught for entering East Timor without legal documents, said the country’s senior police official Henrique da Costa, but police later concluded the pair were two of the four Bali fugitives.

"We will most likely hand them back to the Indonesia Friday afternoon now that we know they are fugitives," da Costa said.

The four foreign inmates escaped Bali's prison through a 50x75cm hole at the prison's wall that connects to a 15-metre long water tunnel heading towards a public street.

Shaun Edward Davidson and Malaysian man Tee Kok King remain on the run one month after they tunnelled out of Bali’s Kerobokan prison with two other inmates. Picture: AFP
Shaun Edward Davidson and Malaysian man Tee Kok King remain on the run one month after they tunnelled out of Bali’s Kerobokan prison with two other inmates. Picture: AFP

Davidson, who was going to be freed in less than three months, denied on his Facebook account he has been taunting police with his posts.

"I'm definitely not a public threat as Interpol would have u believe,” he wrote last Wednesday.

“Im (sic) just having some fun and a laugh I'm living my life just trying to make the best out of a bad situation it's always better to laugh than anything else.”