ESCAPED PRISONER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 16 July 1928, Page 3

ESCAPED PRISONER

LETTER TO NEWSPAPER

REASON VOll BREAKING GAOL

(My Tolefft'aph.—P*wia Aiwokxtivo.)

AUCKLAND, 13th July

The prisoner who .'escaped from Mount Eden Gaol, John Leslie Buckley, has written ;i. letter, which arrived this morning, to the Auckland "Sun." The letter was posted at Chrisfcchureh, and bears the date of 11th July. The handwriting, when referred to the police, was identified as that of Buckley. At the conclusion of the letter Buckley intimates that he lias provided for the possibility of his whereabouts being discovered from the post office stampmark. Buckley says that he has defective eyesight, and while working in the prison quarry his glasses were broken, fragments of tho glass entering his eve. Continuing, Buckley says: "I immediately ceased work and complained to the warder in charge of having something in my eye. At my request I was taken to the gaol dispensary and I had my eye examined by the warder in charge, who failed to locate anything in it. Next day tho prison doctor, Dr. Tewsley, examined my eye, but he, too, failed to locate anything in it. I complained of intense pain, and he prescribed a lotion, which was administered by a warder three hours later. A fow days later, after I. had made repeated complaints daily, a different doctor examined my eye and immediately ordered that 1 be sent up to tho public hospital. I was taken to that institution next day, and had three minute pieces of glass' removed from my eye by an eye specialist. This was exactly ono week later.

"The eye specialist told the warder j who accompanied me to the hospital j that I was to be taken back to the I hospital for further treatment if tlioj pain in my eye persisted. ■ I complained next day to the superintendent of tho prison that my eye still pained me, and reminded him that the eye specialist said I was to go back for treatment. He did not answer- me, but the principal warder, who was present, said that I was not to go back to the hospital for further treatment. That was enough j for me. I could see by that that the prison officials did not care a damn if I lost my eyesight or not. I escaped that night" My intention was to go and see an eye specialist on my own account, have rny eyes attended to, and then stroll back' to prison; but owing to an accident to my ankle, which occurred wHile negotiating the prison walls, my pTans miscarried. "My eye still pains mo in the daytime, "and the thoughts of having an extra two years' term of imprisonment to do pains' me too; so I deem it advisable to bear with the pain in my eye until such time as I can visit an eye specialist without having to fear very much possibility of being arrested, and having that two years' term of unpleasantness inflicted on me. That, sir, is my version. You may publish' this letter if you wish to. At a later date, when I have a more generous supply of paper on hand, I shall pen you that account of my movements." .

"TOO THIN"

WELLINGTON, 14th July. In reference to the above message, the Comptroller-General of Prisons (Mr B. L. Dallard) said to-day: "It is not at all unusual for escapees to concoct some such fantastic stony .in mitigation of this offence of breaking prison, particulai-ly when they find tho net of the law is closing round them. Buckley's story is too thin to bear analysis, and it is hardly wide enough to justify his partner escaping, too. He says he escaped the night following the refusal of the prison authorities to allow him to return to the hospital, and that he intended to return to prison after his eye had been treated by a specialist. Such a sudden determination to escape does not coincide with the careful planning for some weeks, including the manufacture of skeleton kevs to fit the gaol grilles, some considerable time before the alleged accident to the eye happened. The storv regarding the eye trouble is a clever (fabrication. Buckley complained of eye trouble, and was taken to the prison dispensary, where the doctor and tho dispenser examined the eye and could discover no foreign substance. The dispenser turned for a moment to procure some lotion to remove the inflammation caused through rubbing the eye, when Buckley produced in the palm of his hand three pieces of glass as large as sugar crystals, which obviously could never have been near his eye. He continued to complain of trouble, and was sent to the hospital for specialist examination. Buckley's whole story is. merely written for" the purpose of enlisting public sympathy."