A MAN HUNT IN KENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

A MAN HUNT IN KENT.

EXCITING ESCAPE OF A CONVICT

Anyone who has read the description given by Charles Dickens in the opening chapters of "Great Expectations" of" the vicinity of Borsta'll prison, which lies between Rochester and Maidstione, in the County of Kent, will bo well able to appreciate the joys of man hunting in the marsh land? these dripping-, foggy days. Last Friday morning- two convicts named Soar and King got away from the prison. Their escape seems to have been a very simple matter. When the rest of the convicts and warders went to morning service at the chapel King- and Soar hid in a lavatory. As soon as the chapel doora were shut they climbed a ladder on to a wall and dropped twenty feet at the other side. They had been seen near the lavatory by two warders' wives, but their presence had not aroused suspicion. After getting clear of the wails the prisonbreakers made for the fortifications, and there they were noticed by a R.A gunnei-. He too did not think it necessary to raise an alarm, because the convicts are regularly employed on the fortifications. From this point the convicts went in a westerly direction and were soon Host sight of in the fog. The escape was not discovered by the prison officials until after the chapel service. Then several armed warders turned out, and picking up what traces were to be had they made for the woods, while warders and county policemen beat the thickets in every direction. But never a trace of the missing men aould they find. On the morrow the hunt was pursued with vigour by armed wrarders and a large number of volunteers, who spent a dismal day searching- the boggy fields and coverts of the district. Of course they were provided with any number of clues. Timorous women tlold of men sneaking past their doors in such-and: such a direction; imaginative children told of men creeping through the woods this way and that; but the hunters failed to get any definite sign of their quarry. On Sunday the search continued with unabated vigour and equally poor results. The men were reported to have been here, there and everywhre, breaking into this house and' stealing clothes, into that in search of food, but so sure as the hunters visited the places indicated so surely did their "clue" prove to be mere old women's gtossip. And thus far Soar and King are still at large. Soar is rather a dangerous man—a born criminal, who has spent a very large proportion of his thirty-six years of life in H.M.s prisons. He made a previous attempt at escape in conjunction with a man named White. The latter was shot in the pursuit, but Soar was secured unharmed. The offence for which he was undergoing punishment was for breaking into the Myrtle Publichouse at Ipswich in Feb., 1309, for which he was sentenced to live years' penal servitude. As far back as 1878 he was convicted and sent to prison on a charge of housebreaking", and was imprisoned on two sentences of eighteen months each in 1883, and in 1885 was sentenced to five years for housebreaking. He was subsequently convicted for stealing money at Newark, and next underwent nine month's imprisonment for theft at Lincoln. In 1892 he was sentenced to another term of five years for housebreaking- at Ipswich. There was an exciting chase in connection with this case in 1892. A sergeant pursued the prisoner, who jumped into the river Giffen. The sergeant followed, arid eventually another officer captured Soar as he was coming out lof the water. In January, 1895, Soar was' convicted for an assault.