ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM THE STOCKADE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3043, 27 April 1867, Page 5

ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM THE STOCKADE.

The following particulars of an attempt made by the convict Kichard Dumfrey to escape from the Mount Eden Gaol were prepared for yesterday's publication, but inadvertently omitted :—: — On Wednesday night, about half-past 8 o'clock, the sentry on the rear post heard • noise in the yard as of a heavy body falling, >nd challenged, but received no reply. He then made search behind the water closet, and found the contict Dumfrey standing upright. He was challenged, and surrendered, saying, " I give in, I give in." The circumstances were immediately reported to the Governor of the Gaol, who examined Dumfrey'i cell. The cell which the prisoner had occupied was the second on the right of No. 1 corridor, and it wan found that three pieces of board had been removed — one of the flooring boards and two pieces immediately above it, forming the division of the next cell occupied by the notorious convict Isaac Robinson. On the prisoner squeezing himself through the hole thus formed — 18in. by 9in. —he would find himself under the groundfloor of the building, which is hollow. He would then pass, as it appeared, across to the two water tanks situate in the convict-yard, close to the convict mess-room door, and, by scraping away the earth, gain access to the convict yard. Dumfrey was in light irons at the time, and these must considerably have obstructed his progress. He appears to have got on the door leading from the penal-yard with the back-yard, but, in consequence of the leg-irons, he could not throw his leg over the fence. In attempting to do so he fell to the ground, and so caused the noise which attracted the attention of the sentry. On examination of the prisoner's clothing, it; was found that his irons had been fastened to his lee with pieces of list, and it was simply owing to this fast that he was enabled to proceed fcuch a distance 1 noiselessly from his cell. When challenged by the Ben try, Dumfrey made no resistance, and waa quickly placed in a solitary cell until next day, when he was brought before a visiting Justice and 'sentenced to fourteen dajs' solitary confinement, and ta-be kept 'in heavy t irons for the period of six months,,