ATTEMPTED PRISON BREAKING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11615, 20 July 1905, Page 7

ATTEMPTED PRISON BREAKING.

(Par United Press Association.) Auckland, July 20. . The disturbance in the Mount Eden Gaol on Sunday appears to have been the preliminary to a daring attempt to escape by two well-known, prison-breakers. Suspicious sounds were heard on Monday night, and at 5.30 o'clock on Tuesday morning, a wardet round one man's cell window minus the lower bar. Another warder was roused, and a search resulted in a prisoner named Ash ton being found hiding behind the projection and passage. He had with him blankets plaited into a rope with a brick' at the end. Prisoner made no resistance against the rwo powerful officers who were armed with revolvers. He told them he had thrown a brick over the wall intending to climb up and reach the top of the outer wall. T^c glass imbedded into the top wall cut th-3 blanket rope which caused the brick to fall- Tho officers found another prisoner's cell door barricaded so tightly as to require force to open it, while one of the window bars had been loceened. Ashton escaped from his cell by tearing up a plank bed, securing the timber, which was 6ix feet long, which he utilised to force' out the window "bar. He also barricaded tho cell door so effectively that the wardera could only enter by squeezing through tho window.