SECOND ESCAPE OF PRISONER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 45, 3 December 1949, Page 3

SECOND ESCAPE OF PRISONER

RECAPTURED IN SWAMP

(P.A.) AUCKLAND. December 2. A prisoner who escaped from the Waikune' prison farm on November lo and. waft recaptured on Thursday evening at Waitoa, where lie was working at, a dairy factory, made a further bid for 'freedom to-day when he dislodged the window bars from the cell in which he was confined at the Te Aroha Police Station. The prisoner, Cyril Albert Dixon,, a labourer, aged 29, was found hiding in a swamp area at the back of the gaol and was recaptured. Dixon was serving a two-year term of reformative detention for theft when he escaped from Waikune. He had two weeks of freedom until investigations by Constable Carson, of Te Aroha. into alleged thefts at the Waitoa dairy factory hostel led to the discovery that Dixon had secured employment there under an assumed name. The constable arrested him and ho appeared to-day in. the Magistrate’s Court, where he was sentenced to a further six months’ imprisonment. Sergeant Doel, of Te Aroha, escorted the prisoner to the cells and locked him up while arrangements were made to transfer him to Auckland. When the sergeant returned he found the window bars removed and the prisoner missing.

A widespread search, concentrating on the swamp area, was made by police from Te Aroha, Hamilton, Morrainsvile, and Paeroa, as well as 15 civilians. Constable Carson saw Dixon hiding in a patch of scrub and a cordon was formed around the area. Dixon attempted to break through; but was held. He was taken to Hamilton under close escort. He will be transferred to Auckland to-morrow.