LEAP FROM TRAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 88, 13 March 1941, Page 7

LEAP FROM TRAIN.

PRISONER’S ESCAPADES. Per Press Association. HAMILTON, March 12. The story of a sensational leap from a speeding train on the night of January 30 was recounted in tho Hamilton Police Court, to-day, when Richard Humphreys, a 23-year-old mechanic of Auckland, was charged with escaping from custody and stealing a yacht valued at £250 at Mt. Maunganui four days later. Pleas of guilty were entered.

Accused had been sentenced in Auckland on a charge of theft to two years’ reformative detention, said Constable Lloyd Shand, of Auckland. He was on his way to the Waikeria Borstal Institute in witness’s custody when he asked to be allowed to leave the carriage. Humphreys then disappeared. The train was travelling at a very last speed near Oliaupo. In statements to the police Humphreys said that when he left the carriage he made his way down the train dropping off the guard’s van as the train slowed down near Te Awamutu. He then returned to Cornwall Park, Auckland, where he had hidden some clothes and money in preparation for his escape from Auckland. He went to Mt. Maunganui, arriving there on February 3. He noticed a yacht at its moorings and decided to steal it. An old oil drum was filled with water and lie bought a gallon of petrol and a pint of oil as well as enough provisions to last him two months. That night Humphreys slipped off the mooring rope from the yacht and made out to sea. He arrived at Mayor Island next day where he stayed for about two hours. He made another break in his voyage at White Island, remaining there for several hours before he sailed on to Cape Runaway. He intended to get away from New Zealand when he ran into rough weather which broke the bowsprit and forced him to shelter at Ruatoria on the East Coast where he was surprised bv the police. Humphreys was .committed to the Supreme Court at Auckland for sentence.