PRISONERS STILL AT LARGE

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26812, 18 August 1952, Page 6

PRISONERS STILL AT LARGE

Fruitless Search By Police

ESCAPE FROM BUS DESCRIBED

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND* August 17. No trace had been found up to a late hour to-night of the three prisoners who escaped near Atiamuri on Friday morning from the special bus that was taking them to the Auckland Prison.

After checking traffic and making a fruitless search in the bush and scrub for the three men, the police to-day watched escape routes and for signs of the men near houses, bush huts and camps where they might go for food or shelter. So far, it is understood that there have been no signs of their activities in the area. A report that one of the men had caught a taxi at Newmarket this morning was checked by the Auckland police, but was found to have no foundation.

The escaped men are ’ George Augustus Baddiley, aged 22; Robert Bernard Howe, aged 31; and Frederick Helmer Johnston, aged 26. All three have previous records of escape. Johnston was arrested at Taupo just over two months ago after escaping from the Napier Prison, Baddiley was recaptured on July 3 near Blenheim after his second break from the Picton Gaol. The offences for which they have been convicted include: Baddiley, false pretences; Johnston, conversion and theft; Howe, robbery with violence, attempting to convert a car, converting a dinghy. Details of the escape indicate that it was carefully planned. The large areas of forest and scrublands give plenty of scope for eluding immediate pursuit, and Baddiley is understood to have worked in the district and to know it well.

Account of Escape Mr S. T. Barnett, Controller-General of Prisons, interviewed the warders in the bus during the week-end and later gave the following account of the escape. There were 17 prisoners in the bus and two guards, Senior Officer I. Waldron and Junior Officer J. W. Aldridge, both of Auckland. The senior officer was in the * front seat of the bus and the junior was in the back. He was the only one of the two to be armed. He had a loaded revolver and was “not unused to rough stuff.”

About a mile before the road came out of the forest south of Atiamuri the three men made a concerted move. Baddiley struck the senior officer on the head from behind with a heavy iron range-scraper and half-stunned him. As the driver braked the bus sharply, both guard and assailant were thrown forward into the cockpit of the bus. In the meantime the other two men fell on the junior officer and unsuccessfully tried to take away his revolver. They then struck him with their fists until he fell down dazed. All three then left the bus, which the driver had stopped, and paused long enough at the back of the bus to take three rifles which were without their bolts and make a hurried search for the bolts in the warders’ luggage. They found only’some handcuffs. which they took with them but soon disevded. The rifles were among the “prisoners’ possessions,” items found on the prisoners when arrested and which by prison custom accompany the prisoners wherever they are sent. The bolts were in the guards’ luggage, but the prisoners did not find them. Shots Fired at Prisoners Recovering from their attacks the officers climbed out of the bus as the three men ran away into the trees. They chased the men and fired the full clip of the pistol with apparently no success. The other prisoners “sat tight’’ in the bus until the officers returned. One gave first aid to the injured officer. The officer v4as later treated by a doctor at Putaruru. Xray examinations showed that he had no damage to his skull although he had severe flesh wounds.

Mr Barnett said the iron scraper, which was from a coal or wood range, had apparently been hidden in the bus the previous night at the Waikune Prison. Until that morning there had been four officers on the bus, which was on a routine prisonercarrying trip from Wellington, but the Erisoners regarded as troublesome had een discharged the night before, and the reduced guard was considered enough for the remaining “conformable’’ party. The men were being brought north because they were long-term prisoners being taken to the long-term prison, said Mr Barnett. Asked why they were in civilian and not prison clothes, he said: “We never convey prisoners publicly in prison garb.” The men had taken nothing extra in the way of clothing or food from the bus.

The driver of the bus, Mr S. H. Sandford, of Auckland, in describing the escape, said: “I happened to look up in the mirror, as one does from time to time, and I saw reflected in it the action of one of the prisoners as he lifted an iron bar and brought it down across the head of a warder.

“I banged on the brakes. The prisoner with the iron bar appeared to be flung on the floor. As the vehicle came to a stop, I jumped out through the door on to the roadway.” Asked if his purpose was to stop the prisoners escaping, the driver replied, “Not on your life. I ran around and took refuge at the back of the bus. How could I stop a bus-load of prisoners escaping?’’