2 escaped Camp Hill prisoners were dramatically recaptured after turning a disused railway station into a makeshift home on 1st April 1956 – 70 years ago today.
What might have been a short-lived dash for freedom instead became an oddly domestic episode played out inside one of the Island’s abandoned buildings.
Quinton Phillips and Peter Larcombe Smith – both serving 4 years’ corrective training for office, store and garage breaking and larceny – had escaped Camp Hill Prison by squeezing through a small workshop toilet window before scaling the outer wall at its lowest point.
Phillips – no stranger to the area – had previously been stationed at Albany Barracks during his military service and had married a local woman, who later divorced him upon discovering his criminal past. In a twist of timing, his escape came just a day after his ex-wife had returned to Newport on holiday.
Rather than attempting an immediate getaway from the Island, the pair lingered. The night before their capture, they broke into Medina Cinema, helping themselves to tinned food, chocolate and crisps before leaving with a haul of more than 2,000 cigarettes.
Their chosen refuge was the disused Carisbrooke Railway Station, which had stood empty since the line’s closure over 2 years earlier. Inside, the fugitives set about transforming the derelict building into something resembling a temporary home.
Furniture was rearranged, lino and carpet repositioned, and a small fire lit to keep out the early spring chill. Supplies from the cinema break-in were stockpiled, with chocolate, torches and thousands of cigarettes scattered among their improvised living quarters.
It was this unlikely occupation of the station that ultimately led to their downfall.
Detective Inspector Toms – methodically searching empty properties around Newport – made his way to the abandoned station. As officers closed in, PC Barton spotted Phillips attempting to escape and brought him down with what was described as a flying rugby tackle on the platform after he leapt through a waiting room window.
Meanwhile, Detective Constable Riley entered through a rear window and recaptured Smith without resistance.
The pair’s brief experiment in turning a forgotten railway station into a hideout came to an abrupt end, and both men were returned to the custody of prison authorities.
Too think thesedays they would never have been put in prison
for such crimes.
Great story, makes a change from reading about numpties
smashing their vehicles.