PLAN TO ESCAPE FROM HOSPITAL

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22344, 7 March 1938, Page 16

PLAN TO ESCAPE FROM HOSPITAL

PRISONER’S HELPERS BEFORE COURT (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, March 5. An attempt by two women patients in the Wellington Hospital to escape was described in the Magistrate s Court. . , , James Henry Potier, a storeman, and Gertrude Tilbury, a restaurant assistant, were charged before Mr W. F. Stilwell, S.M., with assisting Ivy Berns O’Connell to escape from lawful custody on December 24, when she was subject to an order of detention in the women’s Borstal Institution at Point Halswell. Potier and Tilbury were convicted and discharged, the Magistrate accepting the prosecution’s view that they did not appreciate the seriousness of their action. Detective-Sergeant P. Doyle said that O’Connell was serving a 12 months’ sentence at Point Halswell for a theft at Auckland. On December 24 she was a patient in the Wellington Hospital, where she became friendly with Tilbury. She told Tilbury that she was very badly treated at Point Halswell, and the two planned an escape from the hospital. Tilbury arranged with Potier to wait outside the hospital with clothing. About 11 p.m. O’Connell got through a window and joined Potier, but Tilbury was too weak to follow and made some noise, which attracted the attention of the nurses.