AMAZING FEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1932, Page 5

AMAZING FEAT

;*GONVICT BREAKS GAOL

FOUR LOCKSOPENED

■TWO HIGH WALLS SCALED

'; (From "Tho Post's" Reprasentative.) if. '■.. SYDNEY, .-7tliJanuary. - H Yatala Prison, -..near Adelaide, in Australia, .is easily the most jjfiotorious in".Australia, for- it lias been ■the scene of more remarkable escapes .{haii any other. It was Quo of tho ■first o£ the groat Australia gaols in Avhich the honour system, operated, and at cannot bo said that the system was a 'great success. Of late years : it lias been considerably modified, and was in So way responsible for the sensational, escape the other' day of ' a dangerous 'Criminal, Ernest Albert Richards, who occupied one of the% strongest cells. Ho •was undergoing a sentence of ten years' imprisonment for robbery.under arms at [the Alberton Post^Oflice in 1930, when ■he and two other men bailed up, bound, and gagged a young employee and then troke open the safe. ; The cell from which Richards escaped 5s one of an- island block of four, situated in the main -yard, of the prison, and used for tho separate confinement of prisoners who have broken prison regulations. Richards had been in separate confinement 'for- about three weeks, during which' time he had to work in his cell or in. the small yard measuring about 20 feat by 10 feet .attached to it, and surrounded by a wall 20 feet in height. The inner door- ot his cell is a steel grille, locked by the ordinary t3~pe of door lock'-and would not present any difficulty to an experienced lock picker. Outside the grille and practically flush against it'there is a thick wooden doorsecured by three lever padlocks on the outer side. 'There is a peep hole in. this outer door to enable guards to see the inmate of the'cell. 1 The only way in which the outer door could be unlocked would bo for a prisoner to pass his arms through the peep ho)© and -unlock; the padlocks. This would be extremely difficult, as the padlocks are placed too low in the door for a man to jeaclr-them with his hands. It is considered that ■ Richards must have had the key,-'..and must have fastened it on to a stick or piece of pipe '.(Such as an electric light conduit, the :,t'op end of: which was bent at right' I angles to enable him to exert sufficient '.leverage to turn the locks. To prevent | the key from falling to the ground should !4t become detached from, tlio thing. |ijo 'which it Was fastened, he may | hftve had a piece of string tied to it. ; Once out of the cell, Richards had to , taisape from the exercise yard, across iftie top of which /was stretched iron I liars covered with wire netting. These iron bars are strengthened at; intervals ■^ith cross pieces. .:' Richards probably climbed on his cell . floor, hung by his hands from one of the •r <{rbss bars, and pressed with his feet ftgainst a parallel bar about three feet S^ay. Probably by this means he iqreed two of the./bars -sufficiently far gpart to enable him to squeeze'through; Then he tore the wire netting apar/,t>, sjn/d scrambled through; ' To enable him" "tjb; climb the walls, Richards provided jljinself jfit^a^jopeniade from'his, coir bed matag,?N>To make a hook to attach tjq the Richards tore'a;, length tff -elecWe^light- conduit froni the wall and bent it. Apparently no difficulty was experienced in scaling the $8; feet outer jvall,by,t.his means,, as .the ijppe was""Jojirtd-- dangling against 'iltie'outside of 'fhV-wall the'day after ther escape. /

-; .When the guards clianged shifts at raidnight.Bichards. was in 'his cell, butj he"Tivas missing at' 6 aim. Four guards werron-du'ty^SiWe- night" drtHe"escapr The guards examine ;tlio walls and outbuildings in their tour, and they have, also, to punch time clocks situated in various portions-of the prison at stated times. Oiie shell ciockJs'-'situated near the separate coi^fininjeufc cells. Once this clock<^afbeA-"'punchei, Biehards wonld havfe'tatf^pactically lal£ an hour to escape. That .-he was-able taperform, such a diffi.eiilt'"fe"at ..in ; so short a time "was remarK'ofbJe, ,ati(i. tho prison authorities ar.e'.:'ajn.azed as much at his 'audacity as th^j,H|r.e..atr^his success.