Escape over prison wall

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33381, 13 November 1973, Page 18

Escape over prison wall

<New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 12. A man escaped from Mount Eden Prison this afternoon by scaling a 20-foot-high wall with a rope made of blankets.

The escaper, Maunga Joe Hohepa, aged 18, serving a ;12-month sentence for car conversion and theft, was still at large late tonight. The prison superintendent, Mr J. Rogers, said Hohepa I tied a piece of wood on the end of the blanket rope and flung it on to the top of the [prison wall, where it tangled | in the barbed wire. ■ Another inmate climbed to the top of the wall and gave , Hohepa a lift up, then lowered him down the other side. In the process the helper slipped and fell back into the prison courtyard. A man working near the prison alerted the police, who cordoned the area around the prison. While the search for Ho-

hepa went on, the second inmate was treated in the prison for a suspected broken foot. Hohepa is a Maori, sft 6in, of medium build. His right index finger is defonned and there is a scar on the back of his right hand. His right upper arm is tattoed with a naked woman and he has a sand buggy, a heart and a scroll tattoed on his left forearm.