WARDER ATTACKED

Hokitika Guardian, 19 June 1928, Page 4

WARDER ATTACKED

PLAN OF ESCAPE FAILS. •, • : SYDNEY, June. 12.

A daring plan of escape was conceived by two of Melbourne’s most desperate criminals who were serving indeterminate, .sentences. While waiting in the undergrounds cells of the Melbourne Law Courts for their appeals to he called on,.they attacked a .warder as lie .entered their cell., They blindfolded him and .trussed him up with a. towel and. two handkerchiefs, .and threatened to anurder- him there and then if he did not keep quiet.

The warder concerned was A. R. Bennett, from whom the prisoners took the keys of the cell The two prisoners had not gone far when Bennett, by a super-human effort, removed a gag and: his muffled cries- for help wefo heard by another warder who was attending to a third prisoner. Q'his warder called ,to his mate, and receiving no answer grew suspicions. He found Bennett in a semiconscious condition suffering considerably from the rough treatment he had received. A/further examination revealed that Bennett had not been seriously injured.

The audacity of the scheme, of, escape is its most remarkable feature, tut the record of the prisoners was such that it did not surprise the an- i thorities. .The cells in which the at-] tack was made are situated below the Court room, and both the cells and the corridors which surround thorn aro poorly lit. The prisoners were taken down to the warders’ room and then through another door to the cells. Ono of these colls is extremely dark. The plan of the prisoners was evidently to induce Bennett, by some means or other, to open the door which would have enabled them to escape. The keys tliey had' already taken from Bennett would have enabled them to complete their plan. Needless to say the prisoners’ ap- : peal was not heard that day. They were discovered attempting to open ono of the -doors, and had they been more familiar with the lay-out of the! building they may have, made good their escape. As it was they were placed under spocial escort and returned to gaol. They were subsequently charged with attempting to escape and with having assaulted a warder.