CAUGHT AGAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23280, 24 February 1939, Page 8

CAUGHT AGAIN

MAN FROM AUCKLAND ESCAPED FROM CELLS HIGH WALL SCALED RE-ARKEST IN WELLINGTON After a month's liberty following a daring escape from the cells at the Auckland central police station, Raymond Patrick Letton, aged 32, has been arrested in Wellington. He was originally taken into custody in Auckland on January 22 on a charge of unlawfully converting a motor-car to his own use, and he will appear at Auckland on that charge.

Arrested'"by Constable P. Meehan in Queen Street, near Victoria Street, on January 22, Letton was taken to the watch-house. On the way to the station he unsuccessfully attempted to gain his freedom by breaking away from the constable, a well-known athlete, who was too quick for him and caught him again. After being charged Letton was placed in one of the cells which open on to a yard enclosed by high walls. It is the custom at certain hours to permit men in custody to exercise in the yard, and Letton escaped between 3 and 4.30 p.m., when a routine inspection showed he was missing. A water-pipe leading from the top of the 20ft. wall to a handbasin in the yard provided the means by which the wall was scaled.

At the top of the wall is a wirenetting screen designed to prevent the escape of anyone succeeding in climbing the wall, but it proved unequal to the task on this occasion. A hole in the netting at the top of the pipe showed that Letton had broken through where the netting had rusted. ' Endeavours to trace the missing man were instituted as soon as his escape was detected. The search included city and suburbs, and parties of police covered a wide area .without success, and Letton enjoyed liberty until his rearrest in Wellington on Monday.