CONVICTS REVOLT

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1932, Page 5

CONVICTS REVOLT

AT DAKTMOOR PRISON MANY INJURED IN RIOTING. OVER 300 PRISONERS INVOLVED. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.— Copyright.; (Received 10.20 a.m.) , LONDON. January 24. As a result of a violent culbreak at Dartmoor Prison, Princetown, following a fortnight’s unrest, culminating in serious mutinous scenes, sixty to seventy convicts and a dezen warders are in the gaol hospital, suffering frem injuries. , It is believed none were killed.

A savage struggle between three and four hundred convicts and the full staff of armed warders, reinforced by hundreds of policemen from the surrounding districts, raged for. two hours. A prisoner attempted to escape on 19th January and prisoners attacked and injured two warders on 23rd January. ,All yesterday and last night rumours prevailed that the demonstration would be attempted, consequently the warders week-end leave was stopped. The prison resounded with shouting at six in the morning, the usual rising hour. The convicts yelled and hamtnreed on their doors, created a pandemonium and threw porridge over the warders who took the break lasts to the cells, PRISON FIRED BY CONVICTS. DESPARATE CLASH WITH POLICE PITCHED BATTLE. (Received this day at 10 15 a.m.) LONDON, January 24. A desperate struggle began when the prisoners paraded for church at nine o’clock in the morning, the convicts hurling themselves on the i\orders. A group dashed to the Governor's office in the centre of the prison, snatched embers from a coal Jiiv, and ignited the building. The flames were visible for miles. The noise of rifle fire, following Saturday night’s sleepless apprehension, deepened the alarm of the Princetown residents, and the Governor telephoned the Chief Constables at Exeter and Plymouth, from whence the police rushed in motor cars. A fire engine was despatched, and a hundred soldiers at the barracks paraded in service kit and steel Hermets, awaiting orders to rusty to Princetown.

Meanwhile, the convicts attempted to escape in all directions, but the warders, armed with rifles, prevented a hundred from scaling the boundary wall. The firemen had controlled the flames by one o’clock. Ambulance men attended to the convicts casualties, their injuries being chiefly received during the police charge, or by bullet wounds. Fire damaged tire clock tower, and the offices in the central block, and destroyed records, preventing a.sertaining' if, as it is believed, two convicts had escaped. The inmates of the prison numbered 480, and the warders 150.

fPreeiuitions, believed to be adequate, have been taken to maintain discipline, but it is not anticipatiecl that the mutineers will show much resource, as nearly every resident or Princetown has been enrolled as a special constable, and is aimed with a rifle. Fifty Plymouth Constables patrolled fifteen miles of Dartmoor, and found that the convicts had deprived the warders of the keys, smashed every window, and broken into the offices and stores, compelling the Governor to run for his life to a block, in which the inmates remained loyal.

The rioters wore defying the warders to attack them, when reinforcements arrived, and the warders were covering the howling mob with rifles when a police officer ordered a baton charge which culminated in a pitched battle before the outbreak was quelled. Seventy convicts lay unconscious on the pavement, and the police and warders hustled the remainder to their cells. Some surrendered, but over a hundred fought desperately until they where overpowered. Even the omnibus driver, who brought the repif oroements, was given a rifle and told to lire at any convict mounting the walls. Alexander Mawell, Chairman of Prison Grnnmi.ssiouer.s, declined to make a statement for publication. 'I lie police, however, officially announced that the trouble had been foreseen, and that, (lie Governor of the prison had arranged for the necessary assistance. An eiye witness declares that the police arrived only in the nick of time to prevent. 11l roc hundred desperate convicts fironi escaping and terrorising the count ryside. “1 have never seen more ghistly hand-to-hand fighting, even (luring tile war.” he said. “ I lie whole yard was blood spattered.” A convict Hu veil a warder’s lile by shutting, him in an empty stokehold, ami defending him with a. shovel against, three assailants. An 'official statement declares that IP> ci n.vict escaped, while none weio hilled. The convicts had complained of the ‘V.o 1. bit the cause of the outbreak cannot be staled.