NEW CUFFS FOR BUSH FUGITIVE

A fresh pair of handcuffs adorned the wrists of fugitive Michael
Hurford as he walked into the Hawera District Court yesterday.

Police were taking no chances with the scrawny and unshaven man, who
gave himself up on Tuesday after spending two weeks on the lam in
dense bush behind Tahora.

Hurford had hacked off his original handcuffs after escaping from a
lone policeman who discovered a large cannabis plantation close to
Hurford's makeshift hut on December 2.

After dodging a three-day police operation and numerous appeals to the
public to locate the man, a cold and hungry Hurford had walked on to
the land of a farmer and begged him to call police.

Hurford said he was "sick of being on the run" and was taken back into
custody that afternoon.

While in court Hurford wore a baggy pair of trackpants, a sign of the
weight he had lost while surviving on a diet of roots and ferns since
his disappearance.

Finding someone in Tahora to talk about the drama has proved as
elusive as Hurford. The farmer has told police he does not want to be
identified and numerous phone calls from the Taranaki Daily News to
people in the remote area found only curious locals.

Everyone wanted to know who had turned Hurford in but no one had any
idea. "There's thousands of hectares of bush out there," Paul Gilbert
said.

"I'd be as interested as you to know what happened."

Joshua Kennedy said he'd "been rooting" for Hurford.

"It's only a small community, so there's heaps of talk about what's
been going on," he said.

In court Hurford, also known as Vanderspek, intimated guilty pleas to
charges of burglary, cultivating cannabis, possession of cannabis,
unlawful possession of a firearm and escaping custody.

Through his lawyer, Neal Harding, he consented to a remand in custody
until December 22.

Police prosecutor Mark Wilton told the court bail was strenuously
opposed.

"There is a real and significant concern he is a flight risk," he told
the court.

"Although he handed himself into police, he has been missing for 14
days," Mr Wilton said.