GAOL BREAKERS

Grey River Argus, 7 February 1941, Page 5

GAOL BREAKERS

Auckland Trial AUCKLAND, February 6. The trial of prisoners on charges arising from breaking gaol, was resumed at the Supreme Court to-day. Warders Burgess and Scholium gave evidence on the lines of the Crown counsel’s statement. Burgess said he remembered nothing after he had bent over the table to check a list of prisoners for drill. Scholium said he lost memory of everything after receiving a blow on the head while he was bending over Burgess. Both witnesses and Superintendent Leggett were freely cross-examined by the prisoner, Smith mostly on points of gaol procedure. O’Hehir and Watson did not ask questions. Warder Crawford, who had difficulty in articulating plainly, said that he was unlocking the cells of the prisoners in the north wing, for drill, when he was felled by a blow on the head. He woke up in hospital five weeks later. He did not know who hit him. The luncheon adjournment was taken.