RICH CAPTURED

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 1

RICH CAPTURED

The escaped prisoner, Mervyn Anthony Rich, was captured yesterday in a planned raid by the police on a flat in Lyttelton Street, Spreydon.

The police had not received a “tip-off” as to Rich’s whereabouts, said the head of the Christchurch Criminal Investigation Branch (Detective Chief Inspector B. Wilkinson). Detective Senior-Sergeant A. C. Lynskey found Rich, covered with clothing, hiding in a water cupboard in the flat He offered no resistance, and said nothing to detectives. Tight security surrounded a brief appearance by Rich in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon. He was handcuffed to Detective Senior - Sergeant P. J. O’Donovan. Police dogs were stationed outside the court buildings. Although he was not asked to plead to a charge of escaping from the lawful custody of Prison Officer Thomas

O’Connor at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Rich asked for trial by jury. Mr F. G. Paterson, S.M., remanded Rich to August 9 for the taking of depositions. Mr Wilkinson said the team of detectives working on Rich’s escape from the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening had visited several Christchurch houses and buildings in their search for him.

It was planned that the Lyttelton Street flat would be "hit” yesterday morning, he said. A man, one of the occupiers of the Lyttelton Street house in which Rich was found, will appear in the Magistrate’s Court this morning on a charge of harbouring an escaped prisoner. The police had been keeping an eye on any houses occupied by known accomplices of Rich.

About six detectives made the raid on the Lyttelton Street flat about 10.30 a.m. The flat, opposite Centennial Park, is the front one in a block of two. It is sur-

rounded by large shrubs, which were also searched. Most of the houses surrounding the flat were empty when the police found Rich. A housekeeper in the back flat said she arrived home about 2 p.m. She did not know about the incident until told by her landlady. “If I had known that he (Rich) had been next door, I would have never slept,” she said.

Rich escaped from the Supreme Court at 8.5 p.m. on Tuesday just before a jury found him guilty on charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault.