PRISONER ESCAPES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21086, 21 January 1932, Page 6

PRISONER ESCAPES.

REMARKABLE FEAT. 'OPENING OF FOUR LOCKS. j [TWO HIGH WALLS SCALED. [FROM, OUR oyvN CORRESPONDENT. 1 SYDNEY, Jan. 14. Yatala prison, near Adelaide, in South [Australia, is easily the most notorious in / [Australia, for it has been the scene of more remarkable escapes than any other. It was one of the first of the great Australia gaols in which the honour system operated, and it cannot be said that the system was a great success. Of late years it has been considerably modified, and was in no way responsible for the sensational escape the other day of a dangerous criminal, Ernest Albert. Richards, who occupied one of the strongest cells. He was undergoing a sentence of ten years' imprisonment for robbery under arms at the Albcrton Post Office in 1930. when he and two other men bailed up, / bound and gagged a young employee and jihen broke open the safe. The cell from which Richards escaped is one of an island block of four, situated Sn the main yard of the prison, and used for the separate confinement of prisoners who have broken prison regulations. Richards had been in separate confinement for about three weeks, during which time he had to work in his cell or in the small yard measuring about 20ft. by 10ft. attached to it, and surrounded by a wall 20ft. in height. Supposed Method of Escape. The inner door of the cell is a steel •grille, locked by' the ordinary type of door lock, and would not present any difficulty to an experienced lock picker. Outside the grille arid practically flush against it there is a thick wooden door secured by three lever padlocks on the cuter side. There is a peep hole in this outer door to enable guards to see the inmate of the cell. The only way in which the outer door could be unlocked would be for a prisoner to pass his arms through the peep hole and unlock the padlocks. This would be extremely difficult, as the padlocks are placed too low on the door for a man to reach them with his hands. It is considered that Richards must have had the key, and must have fastened it on to a stick or piece of pipe such as an electric light conduit, the top end of which was bent at right angles to enable him to exert sufficient leverage to turn the looks. To prevent the key from falling to the ground should it become detached from the thing to which it was fastened, he may have had a piece of string tied to it. Once out of the cell, Richards had to escape from the exercise yard, across the top of which were stretched iron bars covered with wire netting. These iron bars are strengthened at intervals with cross pieces. Scaling an 18-!oot Wall. Richards probably climbed on his cell idoor, hung by his hands from one of the cross bars, and pressed with his feet against a parallel bar about 3ft. away. Probably by this means he forced two of the bars' sufficiently far apart to enable him to squeeze through. Then he tore the wire netting apart, and scrambled through. To enable him to climb the walls, Richards provided himself with a rope made from his coir bed mat. To make a hook to attach to the end of the rope, Richards tore a length of electric light conduit from the wall and bent it. Apparently no difficulty was experienced in scaling the 18ft. outer wall by this means, as the rope was found dangling against the outside of the wall the day after the escape. When the guards changed shifts at midnight Richards was in his cell, but he was missing at 6 a.m. Four guards were on duty on the night of the escape. The guards examine the walls and outbuildings in their tour, and they have also to punch time clocks situated in various portions of the prison at stated times. One such clock is situated near the separate confinement cells. Once this clock had been punched. Richards would have had practically half an hour to escape. That he was able to perform such a difficult feat in so short a time was remarkable, and the prison authorities are amazed as much at his audacity is they are at his success.