BOLT FROM GAOL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18974, 26 March 1936, Page 14

BOLT FROM GAOL

ESCAPE OF PRISONER CTJASE AT NAPIER Less than 15 minutes after lie had made a determined bid for liberty, a prisoner- who escaped from the Napier gaol yesterday morning had been returned to his cell, having failed to shake off a warder who had given chase. The man, Richard Sullivan, who is at. present awaiting trial in the 'Supreme Court .at' Napier on a charge of robbery with violence at Awatoto, was recaptured in Clyde road. : ' v . . , - Taking advantage of a moment, when the attention of the warder was otherwise occupied. Sullivan made a. bolt for the prison wall. The warder saw him, however, and gave chase, actually catching hold of him as he commenced , to scale the wall. The prisoner struggled free, cleared the wall and made off up Coote road, with the warder in hot pursuit.. • In the. meantime the Napier police had been notified of the escape, and the alarm was spread to various stations m the surrounding district in order to close the' net on the escapee. A posse ot police and warders joined in the chase, but these precautions proved unnecessary, for the warder, after a long chase along Coote road, succeeded in overhauling Sullivan in Clyde road. CAUGHT AFTER TUSSLE Sullivan was recaptured after a brief tussle and returned to the gaol. He appeared in the Napier Police Court on March 6 to answer a charge of robbery with violence arising out of the incident wliich occurred on tho Awatoto beach, on February 14 last, when a-man is alleged to have 'been assaulted and robbed of a sum of money. Sulivan was committed for trial at the session of the Supreme Court which takes place at Napier in. May., There have been at least four escapes from the Napier, gaol during the past two years, of which the most notable was that of Charles. Price, in April of last year, while he was awaiting trial on a charge of murder of which he was subsequently found guilty. In 1934 a . Chinese named Yee fling escaped from the gaol and succeeded in evading capture for several months, although he was later arrested at Palmerston North. Later, a man named Joseph John Blennerhass'ett effected an escape, but, like Sullivan, ho was at large for a few minutes only. With police constables at his heels, Blennerhassett ran down Coote road, • and dived into, the sea, being rescued: with difficulty from the waves.