"I WILL WHISTLE"

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 242, 13 May 1933, Page 3

"I WILL WHISTLE"

Attempted Prison Escape COMMITTAL AT DUNEDIN Press Association—Copyright Dunedin. May 10. Details of an attempt to escape from the Dunedin police cells on Monday evening were given in the Police Court this morning, when Albert Harris appeared before Mr. J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., on a charge that being in lawful custody on a charge of receiving stolen property, he attempted to escape.

Senior-Sergeant McLean said that on Monday accused was confined in a cell on the top floor. Shortly after 8 o'clock witness accompanied Constable McGrail, the watchhouse-keeper, and Chief-De-tective Young to the door where the prisoner wa~ confined in his cell. "We heard so ne noise, the sawing of steel or iron," the senior-sergeant proceeded. "We listened for a while and heard the prisoner say to a prisoner who was in an adjoining cell, 'Can you hear the noise I am making?' The other prisoner replied, 'I think it is the wind I hear.' Harris said. 'lf you hear anything suspicious let me know.' to which the other prisoner said, 'Yes, I will sing and whistle if I hear anything.'" The sawing went on for some time, stopping at intervals, said the senior sergeant. The chief-detective inserted a key in the cell door and opened it quickly. Witness saw the prisoner jump from a shelf in the vicinity of the window where he had been sawing. He threw something away. Witness then searched the prisoner, and his bed, in which he found a hacksaw blade freshly covered with vaseline. On a further search he found two other blades rolled in brown paper and concealed in the blankets. Witness found a pot containing some vaseline on the blanket shelf and he saw the chief detective pick up a small three-cornered file from another small shelf in the cell.

Chief-Detective Young said that the ! prisoner had almost sawn through a j portion of the steel frame of a window. Outside the window there was a drop of about 40ft. | Harris pleaded guilty and was commit- i ted to the Supreme Court for sentence. •