ESCAPED PRISONER RECAPTURED

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 118, 12 February 1941, Page 10

ESCAPED PRISONER RECAPTURED

Made Off In Yacht MAN WHO JUMPED OFF EXPRESS TRAIN Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, February 11. After being at liberty for 11 days following his sensational leap from the IJmited express between Frankton and Te Awamutu. Richard Humphreys, aged 22, the escaped prisoner, was recaptured on board the auxiliary yacht Jeanette oft the .Fast Coast, near Ruatoria, in the earlv hours of this morning. His arrest was effected by Constable J. W. Birch. According to information received by the Auckland police, a vessel answering to the description of the yacht Jeanette, which disappeared from its moorings at Mount Maunganui. Tauranga, last Saturday morning, was seen last night about five miles off the coast north of Rnatoria. The vessel sheltered in a bay for the night ami this morning Constable Birch went on board and took Humphreys into custody.

Humphreys, it is understood, was alone on rite yacht, which was undamaged. The owner. Mr. J. C. Dmnbleton. Mount Mtiunganiii, has left to take charge of the Jeanette. Humphreys was taken to Gisborne this morning. He will later he escorted lo the reformatory near Te Awamutu whither he was bound when be made his escape.

The prisoner was being escorted from Auckland to the Waikeria Borstal Institute on the Limited express on January 31. He escaped from custody by jumping from the train while it was travelling at a high speed. In spite of a widespread police search it was some days before some railway workmen near Mercer reported that they had seen a young man answering to prisoner’s description in that district. Later provisions, water, and a cheap school atlas were procured in lhe Mount Mnnnganni township by a man said to resemble Humphreys, and early on last Tuesday morning the 20 ft. auxiliary yacht Jeanette disappeared from her moorings, and it was thought that the prisoner was attempting to escape on board. Holiday-makers on Mayor Island caught sight of a yacht at anchor off the island and later the master of the vessel Kopara reported that one of his officers had observed a yacht similar to the Jeanette 15 miles north of East Cape. Humphreys offered no resistance when his boat was boarded today. He had put into the bay because his ballast had shifted.