BID FOR LIBERTY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2854, 19 August 1916, Page 10

BID FOR LIBERTY

SENSATION AT TEf ACE GAOL PLOT THAT FAILED CHARCES AGAINST FOUR PRISONERS. A desperate and planned attempt to escape from the Terrace Prison was made by four prisoners last Saturday morning (so the gaol authorities allege), and yesterday the four appeared before Mr. W. G. Riddcll, S.M., charged with having, with intent to commit a crime or to facilitate the commission of a crime by violent! means, rendered one Charles Spittall incapable of resistance. The .defendants were John Dainty Campbell Birch, Hector M'Loaii, Charles Hazeldin. and George Crowthcr. The most striking thing about the case was the appearance of Birch. He is only eighteen years of age, a smoothfaced hoy. obviously intelligent and particularly bright. Yet the records give it that this lad was serving a life sentence. There was something very striking about it all, and something very sad. "' Hazeldin is only twenty-three, and M'Lean and Crowthcr are on toward middle age. The prisoners had'all been transferred to Wellington from Lyttelton quite recently. M'Lean is serving a jive years' sentence for breaking, enterand theft. Ho was sentenced in Christehureh in Hay last year. Hazeldin's term is six years for attemnt to commit rape. He was sentenced on March, 1014, at Greymouth. Crowthcr was dealt with in Canterbury, and received ton years for assault and robbery, and forging a banknote. He was sentenced late in 1914. It was in Timarii on February 2, 1915. that Birch received his sentence of life imprisonment oii charges of attempted murder, forgery (five charges'), theft (2V and breaking and entering. The prisoners were not. defended by counsel, and the oase»against them was conducted by Sub-Insiwctor M'Kinnon. The first witness called was Charles Edward Spittall. warder at the Terrace Gaol, and in charge of the tailors' shop (which is on the top floor of the building). He stated that last Satur- | day morning the prisoners were under his chareo. At about 10.30 o'clock.he found that there was a big escnpe of gas in the shop. He inquired the reason, and one prisoner said tho cause of the escnno was that tlie pilots were out. Ho investigated, and was now of the opinion that the pilots had hfljCn deliberately turned off and th n n on- again by someone in the.room. Ho was just about to walk awav from the gas 6tove when he was seized bv Crowthcr, who nut a "Half-Nelson" on to him. While witness w : as strucfrling with Crowther, tho /prisoner M'Lean joined in and brutally assaulted witness, hitting him in the stomach and kicking him. Just as M'Lean had nearly exhausted himself, Birch rendered witness unconscious by dealing hjm a blow over the head with sonic instrument. When he came to, he found himself hound and gagged, and the tailors' shop empty of prisoners. Ho struggled to free himself of his bonds, and he managed to crawl to an electric hell, which rings in the watch-, tower. This he rang, and, eventual-, ly, assistance came. The khaki clothing produced in Court was made for officers of the Auckland prison, and had been wrongfully removed from his office. Dr. H. A. H. Gilmer slated' that when called in he found Warder Spittall suffering from shock, an abrasion over the left temple, his eye bloodshot, throat swollen,. tongue swollen and bruised, one of the fingers of the left hand bruised, and ribs bruised. He thought the head injuries were inflicted with something .harder than a sandbag. _ . , . Ernest Chiug, the principal warder, deposed that when the alarm bell rang he armed himself with a revolver, called two other warders, and proceeded to the tailor's shop, - where he saw Spittall looking knocked about. He then went to the store underneath, where he found tho four prisoners trying to unlock a door. • "I drew my revolver," continued the witness, "and told them to put up their hands, or 1 would shoot tlie first man who showed light. They did so, saying: 'It's all right, Mr. Ching, we will'give' it up.' " They had got through two doors, and were working on a third when he arrived on the scene. Had, they got through that door and another they would have been at liberty. The prisoners were wearing the khaki trousers produced in Court. The gaol staff was very short that day, on account of the sitting of the Supreme Court, and the prisoners were aware of the .fact. John William Chapman, a warder, who ; assisted in tho capture, said that in ' the pockets of the clothing taken off Birch were a fancy-bordered handkerchief, a tooth-brush, a small piece' of pencil, and a photograph. Herbert Wallace Todd, another warder, corroborated the previous evidence. Warder Hood gave evidence that the four prisoners were transferred to Wellington from Lyttelton in May and June last. At the conclusion of the evidence the prisoners all pleaded not guilty, and they were committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Crowther remarked that they would be defending the cases themselves, and he asked if they might have a copy of the -depositions." Mr. Riddcll direoted that the defendants should have a copy.