AGAIN AT LARGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 May 1918, Page 7

AGAIN AT LARGE.

SENSATIONAL ESCAPE 01? JOSEPH CHRISTIE, Auckland, May (!. Joseph Thomas Christie, who has previously made several sensational escapes from custody, got through tho window of a cell at Avondale Mental Hospital ou Saturday, and is still at 'large. THE ESCAPEE CAPTURED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, May 8. John Thomas Christie, who escaped from a mental hospital on Monday, has been re-captured by a constable atPapakura. It will be remembered that Christie went to a motor supply store at Palmerston North not long ago, and stated that he desired to purchase a motorcycle. He said that he could not ride, and an instructor was detailed to teach him. Lessons were given, and Christie was anxious to try the working of the machine for himself. Permission' was given, and he did not stop till he reached Wellington. He sold the bicycle to a •person at Island Bay, and was apprehended. Christie is between twenty and thirty years of age. He was being taken to the Auckland Mental Hospital on one occasion by two constables, when he escaped through a window of the train between Ellerslie and Auckland. .Ho had been committed to a mental hospital several times, and escaped qufte regularly. One of his dashes for freedom involved a jump overboard from the Maori in Lyttelton harbour.