ESCAPED PRISONER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 11, 14 July 1928, Page 11

ESCAPED PRISONER

WRITES TO NEWSPAPER EEASON FOR BREAKAWAY (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) ' AUCKLAND, 13tli July. Tho prisoner who escaped from Mount Eden Gaol, John Leslie Buckley, hns written a letter, which arrived, this morning, to tho Auckland "Sun." Tho lotter was posted tit Christehurch, and bears the date of 11th July. The handwriting, when referred to the police, was identified as that of Buckley. At tho conclusion of tho letter Buckley intimates that he' has provided for tho possibility of his whereabouts being discovered from the-post offico stampmark. Buckley gays that ho has dcfectivo .eyesight, and whilo working in the prison quarry his glasses wove broken, fragments of tho glass entering his eye. Continuing, Buckley says: "I immediately ceased work and complained to tho wardor in charge of having something in my oyo. At my request I was taken to tho gaol dispensary and had my eyo oxaminodtby tho warder in charge, who failed to locato anything in it. Next day the prison doctor, Dr. Tewsley, examined my eye, but ho, too, failed to locate anything in it. I complained of intense pain, and he prescribed a lotion, which was administered by a warder three hours later. A few days later, after I had made repeated complaints daily, a different doctor examined my eye and' immediately ordered that I be sent up to the public hospital. I was taken to that institution nest day, and had three minute pieces of glass removed from my eye by an eye specialist. This was exactly one week later. "The eye spccialHi told the wardor who accompanied me to the hospital that 1 was to be taken back to tho hospital for further trcatmont if the pain in my eye persisted. I complained next- day to the- superintendent of the prison that my eye still pained me, and reminded him that tho eye specialist said I was to go back for treatment. He did not answer me, but the principal warder, who was present, said that 1 was not to go back to the hospital for further treatment. That was enough for me. I could see by that that the prison officials did not care a damn f I lost my eyesight or not. I escaped that night. My intontion was to go and see an eye specialist on my own account, have my eyes attended to, and then stroll back to prison; but owing to an accident to my ankle, which occurred while negotiating the prison walls, my plans miscarried. "My eye still pains me in the daytime, and (he thoughts of having an extra twp years' term of imprisonment to do pains me too; so I deem it advisable to bear with tho pain in my uyo until- such time as I can visit an eye specialist 'without having to fear very much possibility of being arrested, find having that two years' term of unpleasuntncbs inflicted on me. That, sir, is my version. You may publish this Jut; ter if you wish to. At a later dak>! when I have a more generous supply of paper on hand, I shall pen you that account of my movements." In reference >lo the' above mossng'c, the Coniptrollcr-Goiieral ol" Prisons (Mr. B, L. Dallard) said to-day: "It is not at all unusual for escapees to concoct some such fantastic story in mitigation of this offence of breaking prison, particulaily when'they Mud (ho net of tho law-is closing'round -them. Buckley's story is too thin to bear analysis, and it is hardly wide enough to justify his partner escaping too. He says lie escaped tho night following tho refusal of the prison authorities to allow him to return to tho hospital, and that he -intended to return ,to prison after his pyo had been troatod by a specialist. Such v sudden- determination to escape does not coincido with the careful planning for some weeks, including the ] manufacture of skeleton keys to fit tho ' gaol grilles, some considerable time boforo the alleged accident to the eyo happened. The story regarding tho eye trouble is ■ a clever fabrication. Buckley complained of oyo trouble, and whs takon 'to tho prison dispensary, where the -doctor and tho dispenser examined thp eye and could discover jio foreign substance. The dispenser turned for a moment to procure some lotion to remove the inflammation caused through rubbing (lie eye, .when Buckley produced in tho palm of his hand three pieces of glass as large as sugar crystals, which obviously. could never-have been near his oyo. Ho uon* tinued: to complain of trouble, and -was sent to tho hospital for specialist examination. Buckley's whole story is merely written for tho purpose of enlisting public sympathy." , \ .