BEAT, LOCKED UP WARDERS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30952, 7 January 1966, Page 1

BEAT, LOCKED UP WARDERS

Women Prisoners Then Walk Out (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, January 6. Four women prisoners tonight escaped from the Dunedin Women’s Prison, after beating up two warders and locking them in the cells, but they were recaptured within half an hour. The other 32 inmates in the prison screamed abuse from all the windows in one side of the prison to divert attention from the escape. The two warders, although shaken by the assault, were not seriously injured suffering only minor bruising about their faces.

The escapers left the prison, which ad joins the Central Police Station, and walked down the stairs of the station. Three walked quietly and confidently out the front door and the fourth left by a side door.

Exit from the prison is normally through the police station, prisoners are often seen passing through the station legitimately. Senior Sergeant P. Peoples became suspicious when he saw three women leaving by the front door about 6.20 p.m. He followed them to the door but they walked quietly along Castle street. The other prisoner coming out the side door me ' : him more suspicious. The group walking along Castle street then panicked and began to run. Simultaneously the remaining prisoners began yelling and screaming. Murder, She Said One particularly noisy inmate shouted to police in the courtyard “Hey! coppers. Can't you do anything about

it? People are being murdered up here.” A reporter walking towards the police station passed a grinning prisoner who began to cross the overhead railway bridge. When the shouting started she began to run across the bridge. Under the direction of Senior Sergeant Peoples and Detective Sergeant K. G. Sehwass detectives and uniformed police chased the ! escapers. Caught In Mi mites Five patrol cars sealed off the streets and confined the ; escapers to the wharf area. Two were overtaken in Fryatt i street and one in Ward street. iThey were brought back to | the station within minutes of (their break. ' The fourth escaper was lo-

cated by a police dog, Dale.; and her handler, Constable J. Berber, in an abandoned hQuse in Cresswell street. The din from the prison mounted, but the police were at first unable to enter the building. Finally they smashed a window which gave access from the police station. The warders were released but sporadic singing and shouting continued during the evening. As soon as the warders were released, the prisoners provided them with cups of tea and tended their injuries. There was nothing to prevent all the prisoners from leaving while the two warders were in the cells. The injured warders are Miss Cornelia Slobbe and Mrs Miriam Pope. Both are middle-aged. Senior Sergeant Peoples said the four prisoners would appear in Court tomorrow.

The photograph shows Constable Barber with Dale outside the house in Cressw'eii street.