PRISON ESCAPE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 254, 26 October 1945, Page 9

PRISON ESCAPE

TWO MEN FOR SENTENCE HARD CONDITIONS ALLEGED i ■ * P.A. WELLINGTON, Thursday. Evidence of an alleged strike by prisoners at Waikune prison camp last July was given in the Magistrate's Court, when two prisoners, Neville Hugh Coughey (24), and Geoffrey Redmond Turner (25), admitted escaping from prison on July 22, and also the unlawful conversion of a car from Raurimu on the same day. In evidence, one of the accused said Waikune was by far the worst camp he had been in. "Two years there is equivalent to three years anywhere else," he said. The superintendent of the prison, Mr. J. Quill, said Turner was serving a "sentence of two and a half years from July, 1944, and Coughey 12 months' hard labour from February, 1945, to be followed by 18 months' reformative detention. The latter sentence had been reduced to 18 months' reformative detention. Their escape was discovered on the morning of July 22, the windows of their respective cells having, been broken open. . In cross-examination, witness said that "just before the escape Turner had been sentenced to six days on bread and water, but this had been remitted by witness after three days. Coughey at the same time had been fined - five shillings. Nineteen men had taken part in a strike, and all were disciplined either by bread and water rations or a fine. The men escaped on the night following Turner's release from solitary confinement. ...

After the prisoners escaped from Waikune, according to further evidence, they converted a car parked in a garage on Spiral Hill at Raurimu and then drove through .to Auckland, where they stowed away on the vessel Kurau. They were found by the captain when three days out, and were arrested when the vessel reached Port Adelaide. Counsel asked if the two accused would be permitted to give statements on oath, as it might affect the question- of penalty. The magistrate agreed; and both accused described fevents leading up to the. alleged strike and the punishments following Accused were committed for sentence.