TRAP WAS SET TO CATCH ESCAPERS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30952, 7 January 1966, Page 9

TRAP WAS SET TO CATCH ESCAPERS

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright). SYDNEY, January 6. Four Melbourne detectives flew to Sydney today to return the Pentridge Gaol escapers, Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker, captured in Sydney last night, to Melbourne.

Superintendent L. G. Bent said he did not expect any problems in returning the two men. Extradition proceedings would begin this afternoon. Ryan and Walker would appear in the Melbourne City Court as soon as possible after their return.

Walker and Ryan appeared briefly in court in Sydney today and were remanded until tomorrow. Ryan said: “I have made no verbal or written statement. We have no intention of doing so, and that applies on our trip back to Melbourne.” Ryan was charged with having an unlicensed automatic pistol and Walker was charged on two counts of having an unlicensed automatic pistol and revolver.

A courtroom crowded with spectators and detectives saw Ryan and Walker, handcuffed together led into the dock. As an added precaution against escape, police had removed Walker’s shoes. When he arrived in Sydney today, Detective - Inspector Holland said police knew last Tuesday the escapers were in Sydney. “We deliberately misled the escapers, hoping to lull them into a false sense of

security. The idea came from the Sydney C. 1.8. and it was completely due to their work that the escapers were finally apprehended,” he said. “It was their idea that 1 make the misleading statement yesterday saying that the escapers were still in Melbourne. It was this, 1 think, that allowed them to lay the trap.”

A rendezvous with two “blind dates” led to the capture of Walker and Ryan.

A meeting had been arranged between Ryan and Walker and two young women at Concord Repatriation Hospital. C. 1.8. detectives were told of the meeting and one of Sydney’s policewomen, Sergeant D. Fricker, was assigned to change places with one of the women. The “blind dates” are believed to have been arranged by a Sydney criminal. Marksmen hid in the foliage of nearby trees, guns trained on the hospital gates. After their car drove up and they were captured, Ryan and Walker had police fingers thrust down their throats. It was a precaution in case one or both had attempted to swallow a capsule of quickacting poison. The escapers coughed, but no capsules were found.

Death Sentence Possible (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) MELBOURNE, Jan. 6. Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker will face the death sentence if convicted of the murders of George Hodson, a warder who tried to stop their Pentridge Gaol escape, and Arthur James Henderson, a truck driver, who was caught in one of their hideouts.

Inspector Frank Holland, chief of the Melbourne Homicide Squad, said today: “If they are sentenced to death, it will automatically go before the executive council,”