Paparua Escapers Both Still At Large

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29170, 2 April 1960, Page 12

Paparua Escapers Both Still At Large

Late last night, in spite of the employment of many policemen and the use of hundreds of gallons of petrol in pursuing false leads, the two 22-year-old escapers from Paparua Prison had not been sighted. The escapers, Ronald Malcolm Stewart and Basil Lawrence Moses, made their br -ak some time early on Thursday. Their escape, from the prison farm, was reported to the Christchurch Central Police Station at 1.10 p.m. on Thursday. The exact time the prisoners escaped, and the time their break was reported to the central station, is extremely vague at present. The lapse in time is of extreme importance to the police in relation to the radius of the net first cast for their recapture. The prison superintendent (Mr E. G. Buckley) yesterday said that, according to the reports from his prison officers, the escapees made their bid at 12.45 p.m. on Thursday and their break was reported to the Christchurch Central Police Station at 1.10 p.m. » It was reported to the police that the two escapers had been seen heading down a side road towards the Waimakariri riverbed, and police, with the assistance of two dogs, immediately concentrated the search in that area. ' But yesterday the position, as far as the police searchers are concerned, was one of the utmost confusion. It was being openly stated by some of the searchers that the escapers could have been missing for four hours before they were reported by the prison authorities as missing. ■ Warder’s Inquiries

A report from a resident in the prison area that a warder at 12.30 p.m. had inquired if the householder had seen “lost prisoners” has not been denied by the prison authorities. The police view now is that it is doubtful if the escapers were ever seen heading down the side-road to the Waimakariri, and that consequently at least an hour was lost in following, with the two police dogs, a false lead.

It is believed by many police searchers that the two prisoners could have escaped between 8 a.m., when the pair were taken out to work, and noon, when officers went to collect them for lunch at the prison. At the last escape from the prison, two escapers scaled the gaol walls at night, took a prison truck, and were finally recaptured a week later at Haast, in South Westland. The prison authorities on that occasion did not even know, or at least failed to report to the Christchurch police, that a prison truck, as well as the two prisoners, was missing until 12 hours after their escape. Stewart, one of the prisoners at present at large, is a workman serving a term of borstal training (up to three years) imposed on him for (wo charges of theft. He was due for release in September. It is believed Stewart was transferred to Paparua Prison

after mass demonstrations against authority by inmates of the overcrowded Invercargill Borstal a few months ago. Descriptions Stewart is 6ft OJin tall, with a fresh complexion and -brown hair and eyes. He has “R.N.Z.N.” with a flag tattooed on his right upper arm, and a hook and rope on his left shoulder. Moses is serving a (term of 18 months’ imprisonment imoosed on him' three months ago for shopbreaking and attempted burglary. He is sft Bin, with fresh complexion, fair hair and brown eyes. He has a scar on the back of his right ear and another on the back of his neck. He is tattooed with “Good Luck,” a horseshoe, and two hearts, on his right forearm, an “M,” heart, and scroll on the back of his right hand, two flags, “N.Z.,” and fern and cross, on his left forearm, .“L-O-V-E” on his left knuckles and a flower on his chest. Both escapers have previous convictions, Moses’ list including a conviction for assault.