SILENCE OF THE LAGS

Sunday Mirror, Nov 19, 2006 by MYDRIM JONES

AN IRISH cannibal who scoffed his fellow convicts is being immortalised in a film.

Alexander Pearce was transported to Tasmania for seven years in 1820 for stealing six pairs of shoes.

But he became better known as the "man-eater of Macquarie Harbour" after escaping from the penal hell-hole.

He legged it with seven others in 1822, hacking through dense scrub in one of the harshest areas on Earth.

Their meagre supplies ran out within a week - and they began eating each other in a desperate bid to survive.

Pock-marked Pearce was the last one standing when he was recaptured.

Now an Irish TV crew is spending five weeks on the Australian island shooting a documentary about Pearce, who was hanged in Hobart in 1824. After the hanging, Pearce's body was cut into pieces and his skull boiled clean to be kept as a trophy.

Director Barrie Dowdall said: "Primarily, the story for me was about Pearce being a survivor and a bit of a rogue.

"But, also, I think it's the last taboo in human nature: What would you do in that situation?"

Pearce confessed about his cannibalism after getting caught but magistrates thought he had concocted the story to cover for his companions, believed to be still at large.

In 1823, he escaped again with another lag, Thomas Cox, whom he also ate after butchering him with an axe.

When Pearce was recaptured 11 days later, he was carrying a flour bag containing Cox's half-eaten remains.

A piece of Cox's flesh was also found in Pearce's pocket - and this time his cannibalism account WAS believed.

A horrified official wrote that Cox's body had been "cut right through the middle, the head off, the privates torn off, all the flesh off the calves and the legs, which the inhuman wretch declared was the most delicious food".

In a signed confession, he said his victims during the first escape included another Irishman, Matthew Travers.

He had been bitten by a snake and was slowing down the rest.

Born in 1790, Pearce was sentenced at the Co Armagh Assizes.

Official records said he came from Co Monaghan but he would later tell a jailer he was from Co Fermanagh.