ESCAPED CONVICT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25849, 21 May 1945, Page 2

ESCAPED CONVICT

POLICE AND FIREMEN DEFIED

SENSATIONAL SCENES IN LEEDS

LONDON, May 18.

Several thousand people at Leeds watched sensational scenes this afternoon when for three hours an armed escaped convict, Albert Balby (24), barricaded himself in an-empty house and defied the efforts of police and firemen to capture him. Dalby, who had two revolvers, hid himself in the false roof of a house, threatening ’to shoot anyone who interfered with him. The firemen turned two strong jets on the house for halT an hour, after which Dalby’s father volunteered to climb the fire escape and appeal to his son to surrender. There was a 10-minute parley, in which Dalby brandished a revolver. His father’s mission failed. The firemen then gain drenched Dalby, who climbed to the roof of the empty house, then over a neighbouring synagogue to an occupied house. He was there drenched for an hour by the firemen’s hoses. Dalby next broke through a skylight into an attic, after which detectives entered the house. Dalby reappeared on the roof. The police were about to send for a military unit equipped with tear gas when Dalby surrendered and was taken away handcuffed. Dalby had earlier stolen a car which the police unsuccessfully chased. Trace of him was lost until he was found' in the house.