BETRAYED BY SNORE

Evening Star, Issue 23700, 7 October 1940, Page 4

BETRAYED BY SNORE

THREE OF ESCAPED PRISONERS CAPTURED SLEEPING UNDER TREE [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, October 7. Three of the four prisoners who escaped from Auckland prison on Tuesday night were recaptured early this morning, sleeping under a large tree in a pine plantation, about 200yds from Titirangi Hotel on the hills west of Auckland. An intensive search had been made of this area by a large cordon of police since Saturday night, when it Jfss known that three of the escapees had travelled in that direction. As dawn was breaking this morning Constable M'Tavish heard snoring near Titirangi road. Getting through a fence, he came on an open patch, and saw the three prisoners sleeping under a pine tree. When M'Tavish called to them they showed no disposition to resist, and said they would come quietly. Constables Saunders and Dwan came on the scene and assisted to handcuff Smith, Silva, and Ohehir. These men said they left Watson, who was suffering from a chest complaint, at Newmarket on Tuesday evening soon after escaping. Each in a separate car, the men arrived at the central police station at 7.30 a.m. The police received a report yesterday afternoon that three men, believed to bo the prisoners, had been seen by girls on the Waitakeri Drive road. Police cars were rushed in that direction, and a force of 85 constables and detectives operated under directions signalled from the hill by Superintendent J. Cummings and Sub-Inspector Hall. . . A report was received at 9.15 last night that men, probably the prisoners, had been heard at the back of a house. The police then acted on a prearranged plan which aimed at driving the prisoners out. of the bush towards Titirangi road. When found by Constable M'Tavish, two of the prisoners were sleeping on the ground, and the third was standing as though keeping guard. The three escapees said that later they had realised by the sounds of the police movements that a cordon was dosing in. . ... When arrested, Silva had £4 in his possession. He was wearing naval denim overalls with the badge of a petty officer on the left arm. Smith was dressed in khaki denim overalls, and Ohehir was wearing a coat and pair of light trousers, a yellow and black football jersey and a black beret. On arrival at the central police station the men, who were unshaven and haggard, were given tea and bread and butter, and at 10.30 two eggs each and bacon and toast. The men were held at the central police station this afternoon for interview, and then returned to the goal. They will appear in the Police Court later. [The four men who escaped after critically injuring a warder were:— Randall Reginald David Smith, a labourer, aged 27, who was sentenced to death at Timaru on February 4, 1938, for the murder of an aged storekeeper at Arundel, Canterbury. The death sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life by the Executive Council, and was announced by the Minister’of Justice, Hon. H. G. R. Mason, on March 8, 1938. David Fraser Watson, aged 21, a seaman and labourer, who was sentenced- to reformative detention of 18 mouths for arson. John Henry Silva alias Shortcliffc, aged 25, a labourer and butcher, serving a term of two years for breaking and entering and theft at Christchurch. Bryan James Ohehir, aged 23, serving 18 months’ reformative detention on nine charges of burglary, and recently sentenced at Christchurch _to an extra year for escaping from Christchurch Gaol.] ’