"PRISONER ESCAPES. JOSEPH POWELKA AGAIN SEEKS LIBERTY,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 69, 23 March 1910, Page 8

"PRISONER ESCAPES. JOSEPH POWELKA AGAIN SEEKS LIBERTY,

OPENS A CELL DOOR* ■ This- morning about 9 o'clock Joseph 'Powelka, a pruoner who awaits his trial *<m several charges of burglary and theft at Palmerston, escaped from the Lamb-\ton-quay polk© station. This is the? second occasion on -nliich Powelka ha.« .made a dash for liberty since he was arrested, the first time being in PalmerI t.ton, when be escaped from gaol and gave- the police some trouble to recapture him. A'ccusc-d was brought down from the -Terrace Gaol this morning, to appear at the Magistrate's Court when his re~mand to Palmerston was to be asked for. While in the cell, he received a temporary companion in the shape oi' a man who arrived from the suburbs to-day in charge of a constable. Shortly after • the prisoner was sent for to be examined in the watchhouse, and the arresting constab,le, it is said, took the key, bronght his charge ont, and locked the dooi, as be thought, behind him. The lock was '» Yale lock of peculiar combination. When the- cell was next visited, very soon after, the door wax fhut, but Powelka was missing. Apparently he had tried the door, found it not locked, came out — taking the precaution to shut tho . door, behind him — and scaled the adjoining wall. At time of writing, though a thorough and immediate search was carlied out, the escapee's whereabouts had 'not been ascertained. It is thought that Tie must have had at least five minutes start pf his custodians. Powelka is a dark man, six feet in height, slimly built, of sallow complexion, and hollow-cheeked. He is said to . be wearing a grey coat and vest, trousers .of a green shade, a coUarless soft shirt, and blucher boots. He is (or was) without a hat r and has not been shaved for a. month. It is believed that he has little knowledge of the city's- by-waj-s.