GIPSY CONVICT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 740, 23 June 1923, Page 2

GIPSY CONVICT.

ESCAPE FROM PRISON

LONDON, June 8. Because he wished to rejoin his young gipsy wile is believed .10 be the reason uny Charles Baker, a convict, escaped from tne X Kn h llffilrU sentenced to f nWju' ■;uol for housebreaking in April »* " adl , *' pathetic appeal for leniency, beenuse e wanted to be with his wile when lie child was born. The appeal was iguorci. Though the countryside has been minutely .scarcheS Baker, who is 20 years of age and a full-blooded gipsy, has not been nnested. There are- many Rpmjiny encampment in Norfolk .that will readily shelter the convict.

MAN-HUNT IN WOOD,

ROMANY "BLOOD TIE."

LONDON, June 9. ! One of the grimmest pursuits in the : modem criminal history of England is that for the gipsy, Charles Baker, who, sent to gaol for house-breaking, escaped to see his newly-born child. In Norfolk and Suffolk Baker's photograph stares the passers'bv fromt hoardings Free trunks and walls offering the meagre official reward of £5. The police _ believe that Baker is skulking in the neighbourhood of his young wife's caravan. Their courtship is described as a Komany idyll," and the wife believes that onlv'for her sake and for that of the unborn child the husband committed the crime ot attacking the warder in the prison. Ihe warder continues to fight for his life, and is still unconscious. Only his magnificent physique keeps him alive.. ■ Though the police are employing soldiers and dogs they have found no trace of the fugitive. _ ~ ~. The belief is that the Romany blood-tie is protecting Baker. Every caravan in the Romany camp has been searched, but all the gipsies persist in sayng that they never saw the fugitive. . Numerous reports ol suspects in various directions make it uncertain whether tne Romanies are putting the searchers on a false scent. , •,, The police still believe that Baker will attempt at all costs to see his wife, and so they are watching the caravan day and nieht ' One report says that Baker has been seen hiding ill the woods in the neighbourhood, i

CONVICT CAUGHT

LONDON, June 13. The gipsy convict Charles Baker, who escaped from prison in order to see ins wife and newly-born child, who were living in an encampment in Norfolk, was captured in Hertford when he entered, the town on a bicycle. _