PRISONER WHO ESCAPED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25180, 10 May 1947, Page 10

PRISONER WHO ESCAPED

ARREST AT PARNASSUS After being at liberty for about 18 hours, Jeffrey Corbett, a labourer, aged 22, who escaped from the Supreme Court building late on Thursday afternoon after being found guilty on a charge of stealing a motor-car, was arrested at the Parnassus railway station at 10.50 a.m. yesterday. Corbett was arrested by Constable A. V. Smith, of Cheviot. It is believed that he may have been waiting for the express from Christchurch to Picton. which passed through Parnassus about 11.30 a.m. Corbett was very tired and stated he had ridden to Parnassus on a bicycle, a distance of 85 miles. Constable Smith later found a man’s- bicycle abandoned at the back of a store in Parnassus.

On Thursday night every available man from Christchurch police stations took part in a search for Corbett. All the main outlets from the city were watched, trains and the steamer express searched, and particular attention paid to the Main North road. There was no sign of Corbett, however, until a resident of the Parnassus district notified Constable Smith that he had just seen a man who answered the description of the escaped prisoner, cycling north. On making further inquiries. Constable Smith found that others had seen the man riding north. He then drove to Parnassus, where he found Corbett. Detectives from the Central Police Station drove to Parnassus to bring Corbett back to Christchurch.