World | Other World Stories
Prisoner takes long rope to freedom
It was a scene from a classic prison break: an old stone jail tower, a dangling rope of knotted sheets revealed as dawn broke - and an empty cell.
- AP
- Published: 00:03 May 13, 2008
- A Mount Eden Prison employee removes the makeshift rope that an inmate used to flee the facility in Auckland.
- Image Credit: AP
Wellington: It was a scene from a classic prison break: an old stone jail tower, a dangling rope of knotted sheets revealed as dawn broke - and an empty cell.
A guard raised the alarm yesterday when he came to work and noticed the sheets hanging outside the Mount Eden prison in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, corrections officials said.
By then Aaron Stephen Forden, who was to be tried soon on burglary and assault charges, was gone.
Forden, 26, apparently climbed down the tower of the prison - built in 1856 and officially listed as a historic site - within clear view of a guards' watch tower but under cover of darkness, said Corrections Department northern regional manager Warren Cummins.
"I don't think it's a joke at all," Cummins told National Radio.
The bed sheets were "tied together and he's used them to get away. I think it's very serious and we'll want to have a look at how he managed that and ... do everything we can to stop it in future," he said.
Police had launched a manhunt for Forden.
Share this article
News Editor's choice
-
King Tut's tomb set for project
Observers note strange brown spots marring lavish wall paintings
-
Thieves caught with Dh6m in gold
Twenty-five gold bars were stolen from the luggage of a Malaysian tradesman
-
What to expect at the Dubai Airshow
We preview what types of aircraft to expect at the Dubai Airshow
