ESCAPE OF A CONVICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18158, 2 August 1922, Page 7

ESCAPE OF A CONVICT.

SHORT SPELL OF LIBERTY. TWO MONTHS' PREPARATION. A. md N.Z. SYDNEY. Ausr. 1. A prisoner named Sterner, •who is serving a life sentence in Mainland gaol for ihe murder of a Chinaman, made a sensational escape to-day, bat was recaptured. He obtained tools in the prison workshop, and after two months' labour sawed through two iron bars and removed part of the stonework of the window of his cell. He knotted blanketn and reached the ground, clad in a singlet and trousers. He then burst into the prison store and obtained a quantity of clotibi and a knife, boots, and twine, and with gTeat difficulty scaled the outer wall. He hid in the bush and made himself a suit out of the cloth and then hid under a t&rpaulin on a train, where the police surprised him. Steiner jumped off and escaped, and doubled back on his tracks while the police were searching for him, Three times he attempted to get aboard the same train while it was travelling, and narrowly escaped death. A little later one of the many police who were searching for him met and covered him with a revolver, and be then surrendered quietly.

Steiner in 1919 escaped from Bathnrst gaol, but was recaptured after a short period of liberty.

Soon after Steiner's arrest two Victorian prisoners, Higgins and Loughly, who escaped from the Penttidge gaol farm under a load of hay, were rearrested at the Newcastle Salvation A;rmy Home.