CIVILIAN CAPTURES BORSTAL ESCAPEE AT POINT OF GUN

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1947, Page 9

CIVILIAN CAPTURES BORSTAL ESCAPEE AT POINT OF GUN

(P.A.) N. PLYMOUTH, Aug. 12. After breaking into a cottage on the property of Mr M. Connery, Taumarunui, and forcing Mr Connery to leave at the point of a gun when he interrupted them, two men who had escaped from Borstal, Mervyn Keith Pedlar, aged 20, and Kenneth William Joseph Kerr, aged 21, were arrested at Taumarunui shortly after 5 p.m. today. In a vain effort to escape Pedlar swam across the Wanganui river at Taumarunui, only to be caught by police on the .other side. Kerr was captured shortly afterwards at the point of a shot-gun by Mr Connery. The two men escaped on Monday from the Waikeria Borstal, near Te Awamutu, where Pedlar was serving a term of two years for theft, and Kerr 21 months for car conversions and theft. When Mr Connery came on the men on his property they ahd packed up bundles of gear and armed themselves with rifles that were in the cottage. They ordered him to leave, telling him that they were prison escapees. The police were notified and they came upon the men walking along the road. After two shots were fired over their heads Kerr went into the nearby bush. Pedlar made towards the bank of the Wanganui river. When he reached the other . side police were waiting for him. After taking Pedlar to the police | station the party was about to return in pursuit of Kerr when it received I a telephone call from Mr Connery to say that he had caught Kerr. The police found Kerr tied up and covered by Mr Connery with a shotgun.