TURNED DOWN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 178, 30 July 1942, Page 6

TURNED DOWN

PRISONER SEEKS RETRIAL

An unusual application came before Mr. Justice Callan to-dav. when Charles Edward Murphy (461. who had been found guilty by a jury of the theft of an electric chill arid a grinder and receiving a drill that'had been stolen, moved for leave to applv to the Appeal Court for a new trial

Mr. N. Wilson argued the case for the prisoner to show that the verdict was against the weight of evidence, hut his Honor ruled that, while everything that could be said in favour of the motion had been well said by counsel, he must dismiss the motion for leave to apply for a new trial.

When his Honor came to sentence the prisoner. Mr. Wilson said his task was made difficult by the fact that through previous convictions the man had been out of gaol only for 15 months in the past 15 years. Yet five oi' that 15 months was immediately before the present lapse, showing an effort to reform. He had been an habitual criminal and was released on license.

His Honor said that the fact that the man with such a record did hold his head up and try those few months to reform was a big thing in his favour. He would be sentenced to 18 months' hard labour.