ESCAPED PRISONERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1941, Page 2

ESCAPED PRISONERS

r —- - ACCUSEDS’ OWN STATEMENTS i - — HAMMER AND BATONS USED [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, January 16. The trial was continued, this afternoon, of the escapees from _ Mt. Eden gaol, Randall Reginald David Smith, 27, labourer, serving a life sentence for murder; David Fraser Watson, 21, seaman and labourer, serving a term for arson; Bryan James O’Hehir, 23, serving a term for breaking, entering and theft. Each was charged with the attempted murder of Joseph Graydon Crawford, a warder, and with assaulting two other warders. Further charges against the various prisoners will be preferred later, including the unlawful conversion of motor-cars, the theft of one car, general goods, clothing, and money. Allan Roy Duff,

a prisoner who did not escape, was also charged with attempted murder and assault, attempt to break prison, and using violence to break prison. Detective-Sergeant Kearney put in statements that Detective Gordon and he had taken from each of the accused. 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 likely to go with them. Five, including himself, talked over plans, and the part each man was to carry out. “The arrangements were that my mate was to get Burgess, and one of the other men was 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 the 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 my mattress. I was unlocked for drill about six o’clock that night by Crawford. I knew my part. I had to get my man. I waited until he turned away, and I followed him toward 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 again struck him on the chin with my fist, and he went down and stayed down.” Silva went down to the dome, according to his statement, and he 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 latei Silva saw Crawford walking toward 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 up s bit. I took the bston off him, and I used it on his head again. He went down to a sitting position, and I left him there.” Silva said 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. A 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 the fences and the garden to the nearby street, Silva stated, 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 the tip behind the railway station, and stayed there until about 10 p.m., when they made their way to Parnell. The remainder of Silva’s statement described their movements up to the time they were captured.

attack on burgess. 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 beforehand, that weapons were to be used. O’Hehir crept up behind Warder Burgess, the statement continued. He was bending over a table in the dome, and just as Burgess straightened up and called out, “What’s wrong, Crawford?” O’Hehir hit him on the back of the head with a hammer. Watson said he was astonished when he saw the hammer used. Burgess went down, and Duff and O’Hehir 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’Hehir through the grille: “Give the man the keys and let him come in and see what is the mater.” passed the keys through the grille to Warder Scholium.'The latter came through, and as he bent over Burgess, O’Hehir hit Scholium with the hammer, and Duff with something in his hand. After a second or two, Scholium got up and started to fight, and 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 the two officers. Smith and Duff had the two officers’ batons by this time, while O’Hehir 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 a noise from there.” Burgess and Scholium were still on their feet, Watson said, and he whispered to Scholium to “play possum.” He 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 then’ 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 a whistle. Watson said he ran upstairs and found Crawford still fighting Silva, who had a baton. Watson grabbed Crawford and pushed him into Silva’s cell. 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.

COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. 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. Duff continued that' 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 warders, either with my fist or with any weapon. I did not see who hit them.” O’Hehir, in his' statement, said he was concerned in the arrangements for escape. O’Hehir stated that the hammer he had used had been taken from the bootshop at lunch time. He had sewn it in his mattress. At the close of the evidence on .these four charges, DetectiveSergeant 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 of 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 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 to-morrow.

EXHIBITS IN COURT. AUCKLAND, January 17. A large collection of goods, allegedly stolen by the four prisoners who escaped from the Auckland prison on October 1, following the attack® on warders, was exhibited in the Police Court to-day, when charges of theft and conversion were heard against O’Hehir, Silva, Smith, and Watson. The charges included the alleged conversion of two motor-cars and the theft of one motor-car. The police gave evidence concerning the goods, which were recovered from the camp after the recapture of the prisoners. At the conclusion of the evidence, all the four prisoners pleaded not guilty, and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial.