SHORT LIBERTY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 48, 18 August 1911, Page 5

SHORT LIBERTY

POWELKA BREAKS GAOL. >W By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Yesterday. Powelka, who is undergoing a loaf term of imprisonment for various crimes oommitted in Palmeraton North, escaped from the Terrace Gaol thial morning. Liter. Joseph Powelka wag sentenced by Mr. Justice Cooper in June last year to three terms of seven years each, and declared a habitual criminal, in connection with a series of charges, before and after his escape from Wellington police station, after he had been brought down from Palmeraton North. Ho got away from the Terrace Gaol about l'l o'clock this morning, but was only at large for an hour and a half. He was found hiding under W. H. Bennett's house in Wellington terrace, a short distance from the gaol. Two nights ago he made an attempt to escape by sawing through the ban of his cell, but was discovered when about half-way out. This morning he was taken into the exercise yard, and succeeded in getting under the sentry box. From thence he climbed up the prison wall unobserved, and getting on to the roof dropped into the gaol grounds. A woman saw him, hatless and bootless, getting off the roof.

When it was discovered that he had escaped, constables and gaol warders were sent in pursuit, and he was found hiding under, Mr. Bennett's house.