LEAP FROM A TRAIN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11223, 31 May 1922, Page 5

LEAP FROM A TRAIN

. A PRISONER’S ESCAPE MERVYX JOHN CUDBY GETS AWAY. BURGLARIES IN WELLINGTON. FAB PRESS ASSOCIATION. DUNEDIN, 31 ay 30. Mervyn John Cud by, a prisoner, while being escorted' in custody with six other prisoners from Wellington t-o the Borstal Institute at Invercargill, jumped from a window of the express train this evening as the train was moving out from Waihoia, near Dunedin. The escapee is nineteen years of age, fivo feet in height, tluck-set, of fair complexion, with a full face, and is clean-shaven. He was sentenced to a term of reformative treatment for breaking, entering and theft at- tlve promises of W. 11. Tisdali, Ltd., Wellington.

THE CASE RECALLED

SACRILEGE AND BURGLARY. The case,- which presented some unusual features, was heard at the last criminal sessions of tile Supreme Court. Cudby was charged with breaking into the shop of George and George. Ltd., at South Wellington, on April 3rd; of breaking into St. Mark’s Church on Aprii 4tli, with intent to steal; and of breaking into the shop of W. H. Tisdall, Ltd., and stealing 11 revolvers and 700 rounds of ammunition, of a total value of £l7 16s. FINGER-PRINTS. In sketching the details of the case, the Crown Prosecutor (Mr P. S. K. ilacassey) laid stress upon the fact that tlie evidence rested’ entirely on finger-prints. There were two fingerprints found on the broken window at George and George’s, and these were of the right and left thumbs, showing twelve points and sixteen points respectively of similarity to accused's thumbs. SACRILEGE ALLEGED. At St. Mark’s Church, said Mr Macassey, a pane of glass had been removed, and when the building was again entered by the verger there were cassocks and surplices thrown about all over the place. Tlie safe bad been blown up, but, oil account of the door being twisted and jammed by the explosion, nothing had' been taken from it. The extent of tho whole damage done was between £6O and £7O. Again the chief evidence was that of finger-prints, this time of tho left and right forefingers, there being seventeen points and eight points respectively of resemblance to that of accused’s forefingers. At Tisdall’s dhop the fanlight oveT the back door had been broken, said tho Crown Prosecutor, and’ on the broken pane had been found fingerprints of the left forefinger and a print of a right hand, these showing twenty-one points and fifteen points, respectively, of resemblance to accused’s.

In concluding his speech, the Crown Prosecutor dwelt on the infallible nature of such finger-print evidence, it being, he said, a biological fact that a person’s finger-prints never change ana that, practically, it was an established fact "that no two persona possessed exactly similar prints.