HEAVY SENTENCES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 38, 14 February 1930, Page 10

HEAVY SENTENCES

iJTHE NOTORIOUS GRAYS

CALLOUS CRIMINALS

LONG LIST OF CRIMES

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "Tho Evenino Post.") CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The end of what is widely known as the "firebug" case was reached tojday, when tho Gray brothers were sentenced in the Supremo Court for the extraordinary crimes that have made ■them notorious. Charles Robert Gray, aged 17, was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, and his brother, James .Wilfred Gray, aged 19, to soven years, both with hard labour. Both were declared habitual criminals. These sentences were imposed by Mr. Justice !A.dams after a long and studied review of all the crimes committed by the young men and after considering the punishment for several days. Ever since the Grays were charged ,vith the crimes tho sentences they •would receive have been commented upon by tho public. This phase of interest in tho boys J short career was represented by the crowded courtroom when sentence was passed. The Grays camo out of the cell with a gaoler in front of them and another behind. They stepped briskly into the sflock, and listened to proceedings without showing any signs of contrition or perturbation. In passing sentence his Honour said: "Prisoner Charles Robert Gray was charged with James Wilfred Gray with arson, breaking and entering End theft, attempted arson, breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, and attempted breaking and entering with intent. There are no fewer than seventeen convictions of arson, seven for breaking and entering and theft, three of attempted arson, threo of breaking and entering with theft, and one of breaking and entering with intent, in which both prisoners aro involved. Charles Robert Gray is convicted, in addition to these offences, of attempted murder, of one caso of arson, four cases of breaking and entering with theft, two cases of breaking and entering'with intent, one case of mischief, namely, damage to a jnotor-ear estimated at more than '£■100. The total list of crimes in respect to which Charles Robert Gray has to be dealt with this morning is ' forty-two. "MOST DANGEROUS CLASS." The long list of serious crimes in about sis months demonstrates that each prisoner, although young in years, is in fact a precocious criminal of the most dangerous class. Their wanton destruction of property has resulted in & loss to insurance companies and to owners in Christehurch estimated at no less than £50,000. Both have shown a callous disregard of human life by their attempt to set fire to St. Luke's Schoolroom, an old wooden building, very easily destroyed by fire, when a social was being held in the upper loon.j. If they had been successful one shudders to think what the possibilities might have been. Charles Robert Gray showed the same callousness by shooting Mr. Hammond. By great good fortune the bullet did not penetrate sufficiently far, but tho act indicates the extreme gravity of what •was done when it is realised that the bullet stopped in its passage only when it was an inch from Mr. Hammond's heart." In the case of Charles Robert Gray the Judge said that only his extreme youth saved him from life imprisonment.