Escaper gets six months more in jail

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 4

Escaper gets six months more in jail

A prison inmate, one of three prisoners who escaped from Paparua Prison by crawling through a hole in the kitchen wall after a stone block was removed, had six months imprisonment added to his term by Mr Justice Williamson in the High Court yesterday. John Terence Mason, aged 23, had pleaded guilty in the District Court to a charge of escaping from custody on July 3.

He is at present serving a .term of three years and three months imposed on December 17, 1985. For Mason, Mr Ken Grave said that his client had not committed any offences while on the run after his initial escape from the prison. He was apprehended by the police and escaped from the patrol car. Mason attempted to un-

lawfully take a motor vehicle and stole $5.10 from it. He was living in a de facto relationship, and before his imprisonment was supporting a de facto wife and two children, aged three and five.

Mr Grave submitted that because of the lengthy term Mason was serving a concurrent sentence would be appropriate.

Mr Justice Williamson said that the method of escape indicated that it had been planned for some time.

Escapes imposed greater security and hardship on the other inmates, and involved the expenditure of money, which could be used for better things, during the search. The probation officer said that Mason told him that he had escaped to get his girlfriend off hard drugs, his Honour said.