PRISON BREAK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 5

PRISON BREAK

FIVE MEN IN COURT

FOUR ESCAPE MAIN CHARGE

COMMITTAL ON REST

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, January 16

After hearing the evidence, and addresses for the prosecution and defence, the Magistrate, Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, committed one of the men who escaped from the Auckland prison on the evening of October 1, John Henry Silva, for trial on the charge of attempted murder of a warder, Joseph Gray don Crawford. This charge was dismissed against the three other escapees, and also against Allan Roy Buff, a prisoner who did not escape. All five were committed for trial on the charges, of assaulting warders, and Duff on charges of attempting to break prison and using violence to break prison. His capture of the prisoner Duff was described by Warder James Carson, who said he. saw the prisoner about to drop off the prison wall into his garden and two others just appearing above the wall. He grabbed his baton and whistle and tried to intercept them. He saw Duff with a baton in his, hand closing on him from behind and turned and fought him. Duff used the baton on him several times but witness overpowered him and returned him to prison. A hammer, weight, leather, and other" material found after the alleged assaults were identified by warders as having come from the prison workshops, where the accused were engaged. STATEMENT BY SILVA. Detective-Sergeant Kearney put in statements that Detective Gordon and i he had taken from each of the accused, j In his statement, Silva said he had! been in gaol for only about one month.' He went there with the intention of | escaping. He and a mate, whom he • did not name, got in touch with those j likely to go with them. Five, includ- j ing himself, talked over plans and the; part each man was to carry out. j "The arrangements were that my mate was to get Burgess and one of the other men to get Scholium in the dome," Silva's "statement continued. "I; was to get Crawford. Then we were to take the keys and leave the prison the best way we could." Describing his part in the escape, Silva said that, before lunch that day he got a hammer from the boot shop where he was working. "I had it stuck in front of my; belt, and I went through a search with it there," his statement continued. "I took it to my cell and put it in ;iriy mattress. I was unlocked for drill at about 6 o'clock that night 'by Crawford. 1 knew my part I had to get my man. I waited till he turned away-and I followed him towards the steps. - ■ "I struck, him with the hammer and he went down. He got up again and I hit him again on. the head. Then he stood up again, and I didn't want to kill him, so I used my fists and struck him on the chin and knocked him down again. He got up again, so I agah3^tr^ck.::him. : .on : .. the chm:,.with my .fis^"t-^sTfiei""'wenF?^o^< ; ffi(a^tayed down." ■;■;■■' ■ . ■' ';;' '■"" ';./■, . , DOWN IN THE DOME. Silva went down to the dome, according to his statement, and saw two of his mates holding Burgess, who had blood on his face. In the dome he saw one of his mates tussling with Scholium. -A little later Silva saw Crawford walking towards the top of the stairs. "He was singing out so I went up," Silva's statement read. "He struck me with his baton- on the side of the head and opened me *p a bit. I took the ..baton off him and"<l used it on his head. He went down to a sitting position and I left him there." ; Silva stated that he and his mates made their way to the basement, opened the grille gates, and reached a part of the yard where.some ladders were chained together. The hammer was used to knock the padlocks off and a ladder was placed against the wall. After scaling the. ladder and making his way across fences and gardens to a nearby street Silva stated that he looked back and saw three others following him. They entered a parked car, but abandoned it at the bottom of the street and .went into a tip behind the railway station and stayed there till about 10 p.m., when they made their way towards Parnell. The remainder of Silva's statement described their movements up to the time they were captured. . WANDERS IN MELEE. In his statement made on October 9, Watson said- he was the last one to come into the plan, and he did it more or less to help the others. .He did not know them before, or that weapons were to be used. "O'Heir crept up behind Warder Burgess, who was bending over the table in the dome," the statement continued. "Just as Burgess straightened up and called out 'What's wrong, Crawford?' O'Heir hit him on the back of the head with a hammer." Watson said he was astonished when he sa,w the hammer used. Burgess went down, and Duff and O'Heir battered him as he was going down. Warder Scholium came up, Watson continued, and said: "What's wrong with Burgess?" . Somebody said: "He must have fainted." Smith shouted to O'Heir through the grille: "Give the man the keys and let him come in and see what is the matter." . O'Heir passed the keys through «the grille to Warder Scholium. Scholium came through and as he bent over Burgess O'Heir hit him with the hammer and Duff with something in his hand. After a second or two Scholium got up and started to fight. Burgess had managed to stagger to his feet and was trying to give an account of himself. "I could see he was badly hurt," Watson's statement continued. "There was blood all over him by this time. Duff had let Smith into the dome and I saw them all make to batter two officers. . Smith and Duff had two officers' batons by this time, while O'Heir still had his hammer., It was all mixed up then and I could not say who hit who. Silva was at this time still fighting with Crawford up in the landing. I could hear noise from there." WARDERS LOCKED IN CELLS. Burgess and Scholium were still on their feet, Watson said, and he whispered to Scholium to "play possum." Ke told Scholium that if the warders carried on fighting they would both be killed. They were too groggy to fight to protect themselves, and it was only their will power that kept them on their feet. Watson and Duff dragged them to Smith's cell and locked them in. After that one of the officers started to blow his whistle. Watson said he ran upstairs and found Crawford still fighting Silva, who had a baton. Watson grabbed Crawford and ■nncViPrl Viim infn Silva's ppil

While the five were attempting to get away Crawford got out of his cell

and was blowing his whistle. Silva ran away, to finish him off.

In his statement Duff said it was decided to take the three officers on duty, at 6 p.m. and lock'them up, and that the best way to knock them out was to hit them on the head with something. Duff got a weight from a set of scales in the tailor's shop and put a leather handle on it. They had intended to get out by the front of the gaol as they could have got clothes that way, but someone said there was an officer there with a gun. Smith's statement said: "I did not hit any of the warder's, either with my fist or with any weapon. I did not see who hit them." O'Heir, in his statement, said he was concerned in the arrangement for the escape. The hammer he had used had been taken from the boot shop at lunch time. He had sewn it in his mattress. MAGISTRATE'S FINDING. At the close of the evidence Detec-tive-Sergeant Walsh submitted that it was ample on which to send the prisoners forward for trial. They had made a murderous assault on Crawford and they were fortunate that they were not there on a'charge of murder. Mr. Aekins said the evidence had specifically negatived that there had been any deliberate intention to murder. The Magistrate said that, in respect to the second, third, and fourth charges, he had no hesitation in saying that a prima facie case had been made out against them all. So far as the attempted murder, charge was concerned, Silva did the actual injuries, and it would be for the jury to say whether intent had' been proved. He would dismiss the information charging attempted murder against the other four. Each of them pleaded not guilty to all the charges remaining against him and was committed to the Supreme

Court for trial—Silva on all four charges and the other four on the second, third, and fourth.

The hearing of the remaining series of charges of offences alleged to have been committed while the four accused were at large will be taken tomorrow.