LYTTELTON GAOL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13933, 15 December 1905, Page 2

LYTTELTON GAOL.

. TWO SENSATIONS. A SUDDEN DEATH AND AN ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. ■Two sensational incidents, the sudden death of one prisoner and an attempt to esoape by'. another, occurred in connection with the Lytteltoa.' (*aol, almost simultaneously, at about nine o'clock yesterday morning. The prisoner who died suddenly w<afl named Julias Danton, a seaman by occupation, a native of Franco, and about t-birty-ono years of ago.' Ho was received into the gaol on November 22 last, having been'■■sentenced in the Christc'hurcli Magistrate's Court to two months' imprisonment for .assault. He appeared to be a strong, robust man, and Boomed in his usual health yesterday when ho went with another prisoner, under the charge of Warder Anthony, to take down a defective chimney within the gaol. lie was standing on a scaffold, clearing the chimney with an iron rod, the other prisoner being 'beside him, when he exclaimed, "I can't see," and began to stagger. The other man caught him and called to the warder, who went on to the scaffold, assisted to lay him down;, got water and sent to .inform the governor of the gaol, Mr M. M, Cleary,. and Dr Newell, the gaol surgeon. In the meantime Danton collapsed, and when Dr Newell, who was on the spot in two or three minutes, saw him no was dead. Tho cause of death ia believed to be heart disease. An inquest will be held at the gaol, in accordance with the prison regulations, to-day. AN ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. : About 9 a.m. yesterday a prisoner working in a gang on the Governor's Bay Road, near Mr J. .11.,: Buckley's house, _ made an unsuccessful bolt for liberty. He is known'as. Albert Good, alias John. Willis, alias Harris, alias Leon. The last is believed to be hia real name. He went to a email shod erected by tli3 side of the .road, and '. thence dashed across the road and into the Lytteltoa Domain, evidently with the hope of getting away amongst the plantations therein. Pi is escape was; however, seen, and Principal Warder • Elateh- ' ford, who was in charge of the gang, ordered Warder Budge to pursue him. The warder did so, fired a shot to intimidate him, and- overtook him before he had run three hundred yards. He surrendered without any attempt at.resistance, and was sent back to the gaol, whore he was locked up to await trial. Good is undergoing a sentence of five' years' imprisonment for breaking and entering and theft at Wellington, having been convicted at the Supreme Court there on March 2 last. He is a young man, twenty-four years of age, and came to New Zealand in 1904 from Tasmania, of which colony he is a native. He was received at the Lyttelton Gaol on Tuesday, having been sent thither from Hannifr Plains on medical grouc^'' .■ , „ *