Out of the pen into the cold

Press, 15 July 1980, Page 3

Out of the pen into the cold

PA Auckland Two prison inmates slithered about four metres along a greasy kitchen ventilator duct to fresh air and freedom yesterday. They got into the duct through an inspection chamber near the below-ground kitchen of Mount Eden prison, crawled through black fat and grime to a second chamber outside a grilled door, kicked open the latched cover, and got into the prison grounds. There David Gordon Ramsden and Graham Kenneth Lycett (alias Main) bent up a’grille fence where it covered a stormwater drain and scaled the wall. Ramsden, aged 26, and Lycett aged 32, had been working in the prison kitchen and their escape was not noticed until after breakfast at 8 a.m; Neither man is considered dangerous. Lycett, an Austra-

lian, had served half of a 10month sentence for theft and Ramsden had served three months of an 18-month burglary sentence. The superintendent of the prison, Mr S. Ward, said the kitchen had always been regarded as a reasonably secure area. It would be inspected by his staff. An inspector of prisons from Wellington is preparing a report on security at Mount Eden. Mr P. Anstiss, who inspected the prison last week, said he hoped to have his report ready for the Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) today.. Yesterday’s escape would not affect his report, which was concerned more with last Tuesday’s escape from the jail’s “secure area” of Dennis Warren Charles, aged 28, who was still at large last evening.