BLACKMAIL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20094, 25 November 1930, Page 6

BLACKMAIL.

YOUNG MAN'S OFFENCE. TWO YEARS* DETENTION. (THE PSZSS Special Service.] DUNEDIN, November 24. "Blackmail is a cruel and odious crime," said his Honour Mr Justice Kennedy, in the Supremo Court this morning, in sentencing Albert George Aeliton to two years' detention in the Borstal institution. The charges to ■which the accuser had pleaded guilty ■were those of with menaces demanding money, with intent to Bteal, and of attempted false pretences. Mr I£. M. Rutherford, on behalf of the prisoner, said that Asliton came of ■ good family, his parents being respectable and hard-working. He was only nineteen years of age, and had been •working in tho Post Office for the last five and a half years. It seemed that the offence was committed rather j to hurt the feelings of the people concerned than to get money. Counsel suggested that in a person of the age of the accused the offence was not so seri©tis as in the case of au adult, where the obtaining of money would be the prime object. Through losing his position in the service the prisoner had already been very severely punished, and, as it was not likely he would offend again, counsel suggested that in the circumstances, probation might be granted. There had been no criminal intent. Tho Crown's View. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr F. B. Adams) said he found it difficult to understand the suggestion that there was no criminal intent, because the letters that had been written by the accused not only showed a perfectly definite and clear intention, but also a considerable degree of imagination and ingenuity. There were no really palliating circumstances in the ease, and the crimes, which really amounted to blackmail, were among the worst in the criminal calendar, besides which ordinary theft and false pretences were more or less neutral matters. There was a letter written by the prisoner to parents who had recently lost their aon. After expressing sympathy with them the prisoner libelled the character of the dead son, and asked them for money. The mere fact that the accused said he had no use for the money was no palliation whatever. It rather only served to emphasise tho wickedness of the young man, and showed that he was u fit subject for punishment. In the other case the letters were the ordinary type of blackmailing letters written whs regard to family relations. The attempt of the accused was to extort £4O from another by a threat of publishing s story or something serious, which would have the effect of preventing him i't.ia marrying. Then accused wrote another letter after the man had married. Need for Discipline. His Honour said that, in plain language the prisoner started to black-rrx:-\l a man about to marry, and after hi- marriage continued the blackmail, lilai-kmni] was a cruel and odious crime and when it was committed by an ®du> then in general, the only fitting punishment was a term of hard labour. It was true that the prisoner was but a young man, a.id consideration had

been given to that circumstance, but a perusal of the offensive letters which he had caused to bo sent, showed that in his cas® there was great need of institutional discipline and training. His blackmail took its most vicious form in threats, affecting the intimate and personal and family relationship of the persons concerned. He did noi even hesitate to impugn the honour of a young man recently deceased, to his parents. It also appeared, from the statement of the accused, that he stole a postal packet, though there was no charge brought against him. Taking all the circumstances into consideration it was not a proper case for probation.

The accused was then sentenced to two years' detention in the Borstal institution on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent.