ESCAPE FROM MT. EDEN

Taranaki Daily News, 8 February 1928, Page 7

ESCAPE FROM MT. EDEN

PRISONER TELLS FANTASTIC STORY By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. As a sequel to his escape from Mount Eden gaoi on December 7, William Henry Grant was charged at the Supreme Court to-day with assaulting Warder John Booth. Prisoner was engaged in the bakehouse, and it was alleged he struck the warder on the head with a trestle of wood, rendering him unconscious. James Dickison, superintendent of the prison, who gave evidence, was questioned by the prisoner as to whether sufficient measures were taken to prevent escape from the bakehouse. The superintendent said there were no bars across the window of the bakehouse, but he considered stiff wire was sufficient. ‘‘Even a bird will pick at the wires of its cage,” commented Grant. Prisoner, in addressing the jury, sought to show it was not feasible that he should assault the warder, who made his round every half-hour, when he had every facility to escape when the warder was absent from the locality, as there was only a thin wire between him and the yards. Giving what he described as a true version of the affair, Grant said that while another prisoner engaged in the bakehouse was asleep he climbed up to the window with a view to surmounting an intervening wall. While on the point of liberty Booth arrived and said: “Who is up there?” Prisoner said he did not reply until Booth threatened to shoot, when prisoner fell on him. He then escaped, knowing Booth would raise the alarm. In summing up, His Honour remarked that with some criminals vanity and the desire for publicity prompted them into the telling of fantastic stories. In any case, accused had admitted he was the cause of the injuries to th® warder and that happening could scarcely be accidental. The jury returned a verdict of “guilty, but without malice.” 'Sentence was postponed until Saturday.