HAM-HUNT IN WOODS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18899, 27 June 1923, Page 7

HAM-HUNT IN WOODS

ESCAPED GIPSt CONVICT. LONDON, June 10. One of the grimmest pursuits in the modern criminal history of England is that for the gipsy, Charles Baker, who, sent to gaol for housebreaking, escaped to see his newly-born child. In Norfolk and Suffolk Baker’s photograph stares at the passers-by from hoardings, tree trunks, and walls, offering the meagre official reward of £5. The police believe that Baker is skulking in the neighbourhood of his young wife’s caravan. Their courtship is described as a “Romany idyll,” and the wife believes that only for her sake and for that of the unborn child the husband committed the crime of attacking the warder in the prison. The warder continues his fight for life, and is still unconscious. Only his magnificent physique keeps him alive. Though the police are employing soldiers and dogs, thev have found no trace of the fugitive. The belief is that the Romany h!nod-tio is protecting Baker. Every caravan in the Romany camp has been' searched, but all the gipsies persist in saying that they never saw the fugitive. Numerous reports of suspects in various directions make it uncertain whether the Romanies are putting the searchers on a false scent. The police still believe that Baker will attempt at all costs to see his wife, and so they arc watching the caravan day and night. One report says that Baker has been seen hiding in the woods in the neighbourhood.