ESCAPE FROM PAPARUA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27150, 21 September 1953, Page 3

ESCAPE FROM PAPARUA

THREE MEN STILL AT LARGE

The police are still hunting three convicts who escaped from Paparua Prison about 4 p.m. on Saturday. Late last evening two of the men were thought to have been seen in Ilam road, but an intensive search by the police failed to find them. The men are:—

Jack Ormond Harland, aged 25, sft sin in height, fresh complexion, dark brown hair and brown eyes. George Richard Tohu, also known as Williams, a Maori, aged 24, sft 6|in, black hair, brown eyes, large nose, scar on forehead.

Kenneth Harris, also known as Watson, aged 29, sft 7|in, fresh complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, scar on lips and forehead.

The three men were last seen dressed in prison clothes—white trousers and grey shirts. The missing men did not answer the 8 p.m. roll call on Saturday. The police were notified and a fruitless search of the prison grounds was made by warders. Late last evening the superintendent of the prison (Mr R. Pearson) received a telephone message that the men had been seen in Ilam road. The informant thought they were the convicts because they ran for cover as soon as they were seen. He thought they were wearing blue denims, but was not certain.

The usual prison dress is white moleskin trousers and grey shirts, but Mr Pearson said last evening that the men could have obtained the denims from men working as mechanics at the prison.