OBTAINING LIBERTY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3261, 14 December 1881, Page 4

OBTAINING LIBERTY.

A prisoner named Michael Lawler obtained his liberty from the Melbourne gaol recently under peculiar circumstances. He had been sent to gaol by the Preston bench to serve two sentences, one for forty-eight hours for wilfully damaging property, and the other for twelve months for threatening the life of his wife. When he was taken to gaol only one warrant, that for forty-eight hours, was brought with him. On the second day, and late in the evening, the second warrant, committing Lawler to gaol for twelve months, was brought by a messenger, and as the clerics in the office were about leaving their work it was not touched, and left on the table for perusal the following morning. In the meantime Lawler's name had been placed on tho list of prisoners who were to be liberated the following morning, and given to the warder whose duty it was to attend to this work. The instructions wero carried out and Michael Lawler was released from custody the next morning before the arrival of the clerks at the office of tho gaol. When the ■warrant was discovered, the police were communicated with, but up to the present time the prisoner has not been re-arrested.