SCENE IN COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 August 1920, Page 5

SCENE IN COURT.

PRISONER'S DEFIANT TONE. • "ASSISTED" TO ESCAPE. ALLEGATION AGAINST AUTHORITIES. By (Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Auckland, Last Niglit. An allegation that he had been "officially assisted" to escape from Mt. Eden gaol was mads in the Supreme Court by Daniel Murray, when he was tried before Mr. Justice Stringer on charges of escaping from prison on January 10, and stealing from a house clothing valued at £l6. Prisoner, who was not represented by counsel, adopted an attitude of defiant bravado, and frequently had to be rebuked by the Judge. The charges were heard separately, and on each occasion Murray exhausted his right of challenge of jurymen, and he objected when the Crown ordered more than six jurymen to stand aside. An adjournment was asked for by the prisoner, on the grounds that he wanted to subpoena the Controller-General of Prisons. Hira Honor: What do you want him for? Murray: I wish to know if he is in court. His Honor: I do not know, and if I did know I should not tell you. ■ Murray: I wish him to give evidence that I was officially assisted to escape from gaol. His Honor: What nonsense! I will not grant , you an adjournment on that plea.' ' Murray; )lt is no nonsense. His Honor: It appe'are to be an absurdity, and it is I who decide the matter. Evidence was then given as to accused making his escape by means of a rope of blankets weighted with an iron Stonebreaking chisel. It was stated that the prisoner must have climbed up the rope from the courtyard in a corner where the sentry could not see him, and swung over the outside wall. When he was arrested three months later, he was wearing a suit of clothes missed from a house in the vicinity of the gaol. . Murray did not give evidence, but obtained leave ,to call a prisoner named William Brewer. Murray: What sentence are you doing? Brewer: I am not doing sentence. I was arrested twelve months ago and put in gaol without a trial. A civilian, who was an ex-warder, arrested me without a warrant. His Honor: What has this got to do with the case? Murray: I wish to show that I was driven from Mt. Eden by the treatment I got. His Bono): refused' to hear any more evidence from Brewer, who was led away shouting that he was entitled to a trial under the Habeas Corpus Act. It was a British Act, and he was entitled to a trial., Murray joined in and sai3: "I am going To expose things in this court, if I have to murder someone to do it." When asked if ho had any more evidence, Murray said that apparently it was no good calling ,a witness. i His Honor: Yes, if it is relevant as to whether you escaped or not. Murray: No, I will turn it up, | Prisoner then made a long address, in which he complained bitterly of the law relating to habitual criminals. He contended that he had been wrongfully declared an habitual criminal in 1912, when he was only 18 years old. This had "murdered" him. His Honor: For a murdered man you have been pretty lively since 1912. The Judge then read out prisoner's convictions since that time. He imposed a sentence of two years' imprisonment, to be concurrent with the sentence of two years' hard labdr the prisoner is at present serving for theft from a dwelling, and again declared him an habitual; criminal, < -