Escape alert at prison

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 1

Escape alert at prison

Duane Thomas Tito, the prisoner who escaped and was recaptured on Banks Peninsula after an intense struggle with a police constable earlier this year, was the centre of another escape alert at Paparua Prison last evening. Tito, who is regarded as dangerous, was noticed missing at 5.15 p.m. when he

failed to turn up to the showing of a film. The Srison authorities feared lat he might have escaped. “He is regarded as a high security risk and a search was made immediately,” said a prison spokesman last evening. The police were alerted and dog handlers sent to the prison.

Officers searched the secure wing of the prison where Tito was held and found a hole in the ceiling, said the spokesman. Tito appeared to have scaled a wall and climbed into the' ceiling, possibly with help from others.

All escape routes were blocked and soon after Tito made his whereabouts known by breaking a skylight and climbing oh to the roof.

At one stage he carried a broken mop handle and at other times a stout piece of timber. He also threw stones at the police and prison officers. The spokesman said that

officers then formed a cordon round Tito.'

He was caught “off guard” and, after a chase rounc the roof, was recaptured by a prison officer and i policeman. No-one was hurt in the incident. Tito who had nothing to say, was then taken to the prison’s security wing. The spokesman said that a decision on whether charges would be laid against Tito would be made today. Tito, aged 23, was in the news earlier this year when he was recaptured at Port Levy after an extensive search. He had escaped from Rolleston Prison with only two months left to serve of a five-year sentence. He was on the run for three weeks. Tito was recaptured after a struggle with a lone constable. In the struggle, Tito was shot in the thigh, but continued to resist and the constable had to club him with the butt of his pistol. Tito was later convicted in the District Court of 29 offences committed while on the run, including armed robbery, burglary, assaulting a constable, and using a firearm to avoid arrest. Tito appeared for sentence in the High Court in August and was jailed by Mr Justice Heron for four years.