“IT CAN’T BE HELPED NOW”

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 12, 9 October 1928, Page 7

“IT CAN’T BE HELPED NOW”

ESCAPED CONVICT CAPTURED Three mouths has been added to the sentence of Thomas Joseph Donald Lowry, a labourer, aged 29, who escaped from the Wi Tako prison, Trentham, on September 29, and who was recaptured on Friday last. Lowry appeared before Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, when he pleaded guilty to being an incorrigible rogue in that he escaped from prison before the expiration of the term for which he had been committed.

Chief-Detective Ward stated that on August 7, accused was sentenced, in the Supreme Court, Dunedin, to three years’ reformative detention on two charges of theft. When he had been at Wi Tako for a few weeks, he was out with a working party, and, owing to his feet being sore, he was allowed to take a short cut. It was then that he escaped. Until his arrest he hid in the bush' about the district, and during that time committed one offence of breaking and entering in order to obtain clothing. “The offence of escaping from custody is looked on seriously by the Department,” said Mr. Ward, who added that not only was it disturbing to the discipline of prisons, but that it also involved the Department in the expense of searching for escapees. Accused’s explanation was that the escape was not premeditated. He only took the opportunity that presented itself. “It can’t be helped now,” concluded accused, to the amusement of the Court.