GUILTY OF ASSAULT

Southland Times, Issue 24889, 31 October 1942, Page 4

GUILTY OF ASSAULT

Escapade Of Borstal

Youth

Pleading guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to assaulting George Steel, a warder at the Borstal Institution, Peter Lawrence Samson, aged 18, an inmate of the institution, was committed to the Supreme Court at Invercargill for sentence. In a statement about the assault, which occurred on the evening of September 21, the accused said he had been planning to escape from the institution. He discussed it with another inmate and decided to set up a dummy in his bed and attack the warder when he called on his round. He smuggled a boot hammer into his cell with which he was going to knock out the warder. “I intended to hit the warder had enough to knock him right out,” the statement continued. “I did not Intend to kill him, but I wanted to get him out of the way. I did not realize that the blow might kill him. That night I had the dummy all rigged up and ready in the bed and I stood behind the door with the hammer in my hand. About 10 o’clock the warder came to the door. He called out and when there was no reply he opened the door. As soon as he came in I hit him on the face with the hammer. I hit him four times all told on the head because he kept calling out and I wanted to silence him. When I hit him the first time he fell. TOOK KEYS AND ESCAPED “When he was on the ground calling out I hit him three other heavy blows so as to knock him right out. He stopped calling and I took the keys from him. He was bleeding badly by this time. I hit him the first time when he was in the cell and he staggered out and I finished him off in the passage. I then let Angell (the other inmate) out and we used the keys to get out the back door and we walked along the railway line towards Winton. We knew that this was the only warder in charge. I realized afterwards that he might die.” The accused said that Angell did not touch the warder.

Tlie warder was admitted to the Southland hospital early on the morning of September 22, suffering from serious head injuries. He has since been discharged from hospital.