Escaped Prisoners.

New Zealand Police Gazette, Volume XII, Issue 13, 20 June 1888, Page 120

Escaped Prisoners.

Tr Ropiha, alias Piha, alias Tohi, who was sentenced on the sth March last, at Maketu, to three months’ labour for larceny, escaped on the following day from the custody of Constable McCluskey, Maketu Police. Description: A Maori, a labourer, twenty-eight years of age, sft. s§in. high, black hair and brown eyes, two blue dots tattooed on left arm, left little finger contracted. He is identical with the man of the same name who was sentenced at Auckland on the 3rd April, 1882, to five years’penal servitude for horsestealing. (See Police Gazette, 1886, page 26.)

(See Police Gazette, 1888, pages 92 and 99.) Jonathan Roberts, who escaped from the gaol atTimaru, was arrested on the 31st ultimo by Constable W. J. Simpson, Lecston Police, and sentenced to twelve months’ labour, to commence at the expiration of his previous sentences. Ho escaped again on the Bth instant from the prison-gang at Ripa Island, Lyttelton.

Jonathan Roberts is charged, on warrant issued by the Lyttelton Bench, with escaping, between noon and 1 p.m. on the Bth instant, from the prison-gang, at Ripa Island, Lyttelton. Description: A native of Cornwall, England, a clerk, twenty-seven years of age, sft. lljin. high, medium build, fresh complexion, brown eyes, large nose, brown hair, clean-shaved except small moustache, which is cut short, smart active appearance, formerly a clerk in the Bank of New Zealand ; dressed in prison clothes, the jacket that ho wore has since been found. Ho was undergoing sentences of five years’ penal servitude for horse-stealing, two years’ labour for larceny, and twelve months’ labour for escaping from gaol. He is identical with Jonathan Roberts, who was sentenced at Christchurch, on the 4th October, 1886, to twelve months’ labour for forgery. (See Police Gazette, 1887, page 165.) He has numerous friends in South Canterbury.