DUNCAN CAUGHT: FUGITIVE OFFERS NO RESISTANCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 97, 20 September 1948, Page 5

DUNCAN CAUGHT: FUGITIVE OFFERS NO RESISTANCE

Surprised In Pine Plantation

At large for nine days and playing hide-and-seek with the police most of that time in the bush .at the back of Te Teko and over towards Rotoma, George Ahatahi Duncan, who escaped from the Opotiki police goal on September 8, was recaptured by Constables R. F. Julian, Whakatane, and R. Nixon, Rotorua, about 4 o’clock Friday afternoon.

Duncan/who was weak from exposure and lack of food, made no attempt at resistance. The two Constables surprised him in the plantation on the corner of the Onepu Springs road and the main highway that featured in Friday’s court proceedings against Ben Richard Kora, accused of two burglaries the previous week-end, and reported elsewhere on this page. It appears Duncan was watching the Police cars cruising along the road, when Constable Julian and his companion came up behind hiffi through the pine trees. Duncan told his captors it was , the first time he had come out in daylight, but admitted they had been close on his trail, all along. Indeed, he said there were times when he was hiding in the bush when they had almost stepped on him. He had had little in the way -of. food except odd drinks of cream he had got from farmers’ sheds since he escaped and was in a rather distressed state. Duncan 'was charged, before Mr I. B. Hubbard, J.P., at Whakatane, with escaping from lawful custody on September 8, and was remanded to appear at Opotiki again today.