PRISONER RECAPTURED

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1932, Page 8

PRISONER RECAPTURED

SEVEN MONTHS AT LARGE. ARRESTED NEAR HUNTERVILLE. After being at liberty since April 29, a prisoner who broke away from Mount Eden gaol, Frederick William Schluter, aged 43 years, has been recaptured near Hunterville, where he was encamped in the bush, posing as an angler. He was found living by himself and was arrested without difficulty. At the time of his escape Schluter, who was a mechanic by trade, was engaged in connecting telephone wires from the gaol to one of the warder’s houses in Clive Road, Mount Eden. To accomplish this work, he was permitted to leave the gaol grounds under the escort of a warder. While he was completing the installation, Schluter made a sudden dash past his guard and out of the building, outstripping his escort. The prisoner ran across the gaol reserve and into some scrub in Mountain Road, where he disappeared from sight. The gaol authorities, who were at once informed of the escape, made an immediate search of the locality, combing the wide area of scrub-covered ground adjoining the gaol confines. The search party was later joined by detectives and constables from the central police station, but no trace of the missing man was found. Schluter was not dressed in the ordinary prison clothing, but wore a blue coat and dungaree trousers.

It was then suspected by the police that he had been aided by friends, and in May a fruiterer was charged in the Police Court with having harboured Schluter. After accused had admitted the offence, Detective-Sergeant Kelly

stated that it was known that Schluter had obtained refuge in accused’s house from April 30 to May 15. While accused was a respectable man, it had happened that Schluter’s wife was his housekeeper. On May 15 the accused and the escaped prisoner had differed in an argument and Schluter had left the, house, his movements not having been discovered. When Schluter disappeared, the police stated that he had a long criminal record. He was a New Zealander by birth, and had been convicted on a number of charges of false pretences. He was described as not a dangerous man. Schluter noticed in the Hunterville district, and' on Sunday was discovered by a constable from Hunterville living in an encampment on the b’ of the ( Rangitikei River, in rough country. He was representing himself to be a fisher- ■ man. Schluter submitted quietly to ar- : rest, and was taken to Hunterville, where . he was charged in the Magistrate’s j Court and remanded to appear in Wei- ( lington. i It is understood that a number of ; charges relating to offences committed in Wellington are to be preferred before i