Borstal Escapees Caught With Stolen Launch

Chronicle (Levin), 6 July 1948, Page 6

Borstal Escapees Caught With Stolen Launch

WELLINGTON, July 5. * Five youtlis who' escaped from tlie Borstal institution at Invercargill On july 1, were recaptured at 9.30 tonight at Te Mahengu jfoint on tlie eastern shore of Palhser Bay. They liad run the launch Joyce Alan, whicli they had taken at Picton on Sunday, on the rocks and they were arrested by . a party of . Wairarapa police under i Se/jge&nt George as they went ashore : through the breakers. Yoiiths " were Ivenneth Allen Davie, aged 17! Daniel Curiy Samuels, aged 17; John Stanley Pinnell and Robert Victor Pinnell, twins, aged 19; and Jlalph Sutton, labourer and farmhand, aged 19.. Suttqn's inost recent eonviction, for wliich he was at the time of .his escape, serving a two-year sentence, was for assault under arnis wit'h intent to rob. He was sentenced in Wellington on Septeniber 9 last year. While' in the Marlborough area they left behind them a trail of thefts and damage, They travelled in a car bearing Government number plates whicli thny converted further south, and later the Marlborough County Council's dej>ot was broken into in an effort to get petrol. Two bicycles were stoien from the nearby township of Renwick. In the early hours a car pulled into the store at Canvastown where there is a petrol punip and rau into the side of tlie Canvastown Ilotel, whereupon it headed for the open road again. Apparentlv the escapees doubled baek on their tracks as the car was found this morning abandoned alongside the boatshed at Picton. It was then discovered tliat the ;i()-foot cruiser launch Joyce Alan, the property of Mr. C. .Tohnson, of Blenheim, was missing and that several nearby launclies had been broken into and provisions stoien. Mr. .Tohnson 's lannch, wliich was painted while with a green cabin, had 25 gallons of petrol in the tank, suffieient for a longer journev ffiian aeross Cook Rtrait. Tlie liglitliouse-keeper sighted a .lannch off Cape Terawhiti shortlv hefortv iliiddav. Tt cireled in tlie vieinity for some tiwe and suddenlv set off at liieii sneed in tlie direction of the .Soi'tli Fsland. Tt is believed that the occnpants lieard a radio broadcost staling flint tlie.v were believed to be heading for the North Tsland.