PRISON ESCAPE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21853, 25 October 1945, Page 3

PRISON ESCAPE

SEQUEL TO STRIKE TWO MEN CHARGED disciplined in gaol (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 25. Evidence of an alleged strike by ; prisoners in tile Waikune prison camp last July was given in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday when two prisoners Neville Hugh Coughey, aged 24. and i Geoffrey Redmond Turner, aged 25 I admitted escaping from the prison on July 22 and also unlawfully converting a car from Raurimu on the same day I In evidence, one of the accused said that Waikune was by far the worst camp he had been in. “Two years there is equivalent to three years anywhere else," he said J. Quill, superintendent of the prison, said that Turner was serving 21 years from July 1944, and Coughey 12 months’ hard labour from February, 1945, to be followed by 18 months reformative detention. The latter sentence was reduced. Their escape was discovered on the morning of July 22. | the windows of the respective cells having been broken open. Cross-examined, the witness said that just prior to the escape Turnei had been sentenced to six days on bread and water, but this was remitted by the witness after three days. Coughey at the same time had been fined ss. Nineteen men had taken part in a strike, and all were disciplined either by bread-and-water rations, or by a fine. The two men escaped the night following Turner’s release from solitary confinement. Wasn’t it that the men complained that a prisoner had been assaulted? asked Mr. Kent, for the accused. The witness replied that a prisoner in the store had been asked to sign a document regarding a boot that had been burned, and the prisoner commented: “The Fascist regime!” and refused to sign. The prisoner then said: “Take your filthy hands off me, Quill!” The witness described the strike as a conspiracy. Arrested in Adelaide After the prisoners escaped fr.om Waikune, according to further evidence, they converted a car parked in a garage on Spiral Hill at Raurimu and then drove through to Auckland. There they stowed away on the vessel Kurau. They were found by the captain three days out and arrested when they reached the port of Adelaide. Detective-Sergeant F. J. Brady, who brought the accused back from Australia, said he interviewed the accused. Coughey said he escaped because he felt he was serving an unjust sentence, and Turner because he could not stand the conditions in Waikune. The accused told the witness that they had also escaped because an assault had been committed by one of the warders Turner had told him that the conditions in the prison were unbearable. He said he had been on bread and water and that there had been a strike. Statements by the Accused Counsel asked if the two accused could give a statement on oath. It might affect the question of penalty. The magistrate agreed, and Turner stated that he was at Waikune for 12 months before he escaped. He said he was one of five men that rebelled on the first day. “It started over the signing of some papers for some boots,’’ he said. “What happened in the office I don’t know. When they came outside Quill was arguing with the other prisoner. He ordered him ou.t of the store and then he got him by the shoulder, picked him up, and threw him out. “I immediately stepped forward and told him to cut it out. Quill ordered me off the parade ground and to go to my cell. Beswick, the other prisoner, immediately stepped forward and said, ‘lf you lock him up you can lock me up too.’ There were five men locked up that day.” “The following day 14 other men were involved, he continued. The witness was sentenced to six days on bread and water and fined 10s. At the conclusion of his sentence he escaped. Coughey stated that he was on the parade ground the morning the trouble started. “I saw them arguing in the store at first and a few minutes later Beswick was thrown out through the store door,” he continued. He said he saw Turner step forward from the ranks. He corroborated Turner’s evidence as to what happened after that. The witness said he was one of 14 men involved on the second day. He was fined 5s and one ration Of tobacco by the visiting justice and Quill stopped another tobacco ration. It was the worst prison he had ever served in, he continued. Privileges were stopped for hardly any reason. There was a feeling of grave unrest and dissatisfaction among the prisoners. The accused were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.