Ripon Cell Escape

26th July 1983 Yorkshire Post

POLICE looked on smiling as a man escaped from prison yesterday.

An escapologist, Mr David De-val 44 walked out of prison just 11 minutes after being handcuffed to iron bars in a locked cell, and notched up another success in his new career.

His escape marks the opening of a two month exhibition in the 17th Century building in St. Marygate. It displays the work done so far.

Ripon Cell Escape

By Eddie Dawes

Another historical setting was the scene of a De-val escape later that year (1983) a cell in the old 17th century prison at Ripon in North Yorkshire which closed in the 1870s. Fittingly the occasion was the opening of a new police and prison museum exhibition in the old building. After the statutory medical examination, David was put in leg irons and handcuffed to the iron bars of the door. He was out in changed clothes, well within the 15 Minutes time limit imposed