BOLD DASH FOR LIBERTY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22474, 8 January 1943, Page 4

BOLD DASH FOR LIBERTY

Escape With Prison Motor Truck Two Men Still At Large (N.Z.P.A.) AUCKLAND, Jan. 7. A bold dash for liberty was made by two prisoners in the Auckland gaol this morning when they converted a prison motor truck to their own use, and escaped under the eyes of the guard. Both were men who had been in gaol only a short time, and one of them was making his third dash from custody within six months. The two escapees were Daniel McMullen, aged 21 years, a former naval rating, who was sentenced in the Supreme Court at Auckland on December 17, 1942, to 12 months’ imprisonment on a charge of breaking, entering and theft, and Stanley Thomas Port, aged 20 years, a labourer, who was sentenced at Wellington in December to three years’ reformative detention for shop breaking and burglary. Within the last six months Port escaped twice from the military detention camp at Palmerston North. Just prior to their escape, the two men were working as quarrymen in the prison quarry, with a gang of other prisoners. The truck was standing nearby in readiness to be filled with metal. Walting for a favourable opportunity, the two men quickly scrambled into the cab, started the engine, and drove at high speed out of the quarry. It was all done so swiftly and smoothly that, although the guard saw the action of the men, he was given no time to intervene. After driving down the prison road, the two men continued at high speed in the direction of Newmarket. Although the alarm was given immediately, the escapees were not overtaken and the abandoned truck was found shortly afterwards in the Auckland Domain. A large search party, consisting of prison warders, detectives and constables set out after the men. who were seen in Parnell at about 11.20 a.m. A resident in the area reported having seen the two men during the afternoon w'ho fitted the description of McMullen and Port. Although the search was being continued the men had not been captured at a late hour.