Convicts Run Amok

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 35, 25 January 1932, Page 7

Convicts Run Amok

Desperate Hand to Hand Fighting Prison Offices Destroyed by Fire Reinforcements Arrive in Nick of Time [United Press Association—By Cable—Copyright.] (Received 25, 10.20 a.m.) London, January 24. As a result of a violent outbreak at Dartmoor prison, Princetown, following a fortnight’s unrest and culminating in serious mutinous scenes, from 60 to 70 convicts and a dozen wardens are in the gaol hospital suffering from various injuries. It is believed that none were killed.

A savage struggle between 300 and 400 convicts and the full staff of armed warders, reinforced by hundreds of policemen from the surrounding districts, raged for two hours. The prisoners attempted to escape on January 19 and attacked and injured two warders on January 23. All day yesterday, and last night, rumours prevailed that a demonstration would bo attempted. Consequently the warders’ week-end leave was stopped.

PANDEMONIUM. At six o’clock in the morning, the usual rising hour, the convicts yelled and hammered on their doors, creating pandemonium, and threw their porridge over the warders who took the breakfasts to the cells. START OF TROUBLE. The desperate struggle began when the prisoners paraded for church at 9 in the morning, the convicts hurling themselves on the warders. One group dashed to the governor’s office in tho centre of the prison, snatched the embers of the coal fire and ignited the building. The flames were visible for miles, and the noise of rifle lire following deepened Saturday night’s sleepless apprehension and great alarm amongst tho Princetown residents. URGENT HELP ARRIVES. The governor telephoned the chief constables of Exeter and Plymouth, whence police reinforcements were rushed in motor cars. A fire engine was also despatched, and 100 soldiers from the barracks paraded in service kit and steel helmets awaiting orders to rush to Princetown. ATTEMPTED ESCAPES. Meanwhile convicts attempted to escape in all directions. Warders armed with rifles prevented 100 of them from scaling the boundary wall. The firemen controlled the flames by 1 o’clock, and ambulance men attended tho casualties. The injuries were chiefly received owing to tho police charge or to bullet wounds. SERIOUS DAMAGE. The fire damaged the clock tower and the offices. The central block was also destroyed together with the records, preventing ascertaining whether, as is believed, two convicts have escaped.

The inmates of the prison numbered 480 and warders 150. Precautions believed to be adequate had been taken to maintain discipline, but it was not anticipated that tho mutineers would show such resource. Nearly every eligible male resident of Princetown has enrolled as a special armed constable. GOVERNOR’S NARROW ESCAPE. Fifty Plymouth constables who patrolled 15 miles of Dartmoor found that the convicts had deprived the warders of their keys, smashed every window, and broken into the offices and stores, compelling the Governor to run for his life to the block in which the inmates remained loyal. DESPERATE FIGHTING. The rioters defied the warders to attack them as reinforcements arrived, the warders covering the howling mob with rifles. When the police officers ordered a baton charge which culminated in a pitched battle before the outbreak was quelled, 70 convicts lay unconscious on the pavement. The police and warders hustled the remainder to the cells. Some surrendered, but over 100 fought desperately until overpowered. Even the omnibus driver who brought the reinforcements was given a rifle and told to lire at any convict mounting the walls. Mr. Alexander Maxwell, chairman of the prison commissioners, declined to make any statement for publication. The police, however, have officially announced that the trouble was foreseen and that the Governor of the prison had arranged for the necessary assistance. STORY OF EYEWITNESS. An eyewitness declares that the police arrived in tin? nick of time to prevent 300 desperate convicts from, escaping and terrorising the countryside. “I have never seen more ghastly hand to hand fighting,” he declared, “even during the war. The whole yard was blood-spattered.” Ono convict saved a warder’s life by shutting him in an empty stokehold and defending him with a shovel against three assailants. A later official message states that no convicts escaped and no one was killed. Tho. convicts had complained of the food, but tho real cause of the outbreak cannot bo stated.