JUMP FROM TRAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26199, 9 July 1946, Page 6

JUMP FROM TRAIN

PRISONER ELUDES ESCORT URGE TO SEE “GIRL FRIEND” (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 8. “I was quite prepared to take what sentence was coming to me, and it was not to avoid a sentence that I escaped. I only wanted to see my Maori girl friend,” were the concluding lines of a statement by Harry Martin, aged 24. a half-caste Maori, who appeared before Mr F. H S.M., to-day, charged with escaping from lawful custody. The accused leaped from a train in the vicinity of the Orakei Railway Station while being brought under escort from Rotorua to Auckland on June 28.

Martin was also charged with the unlawful conversion of a car, which he admitted using to get him to Putaruru, where his ‘'girl friend” lived. He had pleaded guilty to a breaking and entering chaige at Rotorua, and was committed for trial in the Supreme Court at Auckland. ' Martin said that when he left Rotorua he had no ’intention of escaping. He had arranged for his mother and girl friend to meet him at Putaruru when the train passed through, but they were not there as arranged, and he was very much upset. “We had just passed through Papakura when I decided to jump off the train,” he said. “I went to the end of the carriage and jumped off. I rolled over several times, and injured my right ankle, both hands and my left side, and was rendered unconscious, but I do not know for how long.” \ Martin described how, when he came to, he hid in some flax bushes until dark and later stole a car from a private garage and drove to within three miles of Tirau, where he ran out of petrol. He then took another car at Tirau and drove to the Maori pa at Putaruru. After he had seen his father leave, he went to his home and promised his mother he would give himself up if he could see his ffirl friend. While the girl was being brought he hid in some nearby scrub. He went home again after the girl arrived, and when the police appeared he was taken into custody. Martin pleaded guilty to both charges and was committed for sentence.