CRIMINAL SITTINGS

Evening Star, Issue 19785, 8 February 1928, Page 4

CRIMINAL SITTINGS

PREVALENCE GF SEX GRIME ASSAULT ON WARDEN Ignited Press Association.] AUCKLAND, February 7. lu his charge to the grand jury at the opening .of the criminal sessions Air Justice BcerJ commented upon two foatures__first, the absence of any cases of negligently driving motor cars so as to cause death, and, secondly, the prevalence of sexual cases, which constituted from a third to a half of tho criminal calendar. This was regrettable but fortunately only one case involved violence. The grand jury returned true bills in all cases. \ s a sequel to an escape from Mount Eden Gaol on December 7 William Henry Grant was charged with asnulting a warder, John Booth. Tho prisoner was engaged in the bakehouse, and it was alleged that he struck tho warder on the head with a trestle of wood, rendering him unconscious. James Dickison, superintendent of the prison,' who gave evidence, was questioned by the prisoner whether sufficient measures were taken to prevent escape from the bakehouse. Tho superintendent .said there were no bars across the window of the bakehouse, but he considered that a stiff wire was sufficient,. The prisoner, in addressing tho jury, •sought to show that it was riot feasible that be should assault a warder who made his round every half-hour, when he had every facility to escape when the warder was absent from tho locality. There was only a thin wire between him and tho yard. Giving v hat ho described as a trim version of affairs, Grant said that while another prisoner engaged in the bakehouse was asleep he climbed up to_ tho window with a view to surmounting an intervening wall. When he was on the point of liberty Booth arrived anil said; “Who is mi there?” The prisoner said ho did not reply until Booth threatened to shoot, when prisoner foil on him. He then escaped, knowing that Booth would raise the alarm.

[n summing up His Honor remarked that with somo criminals vanity and a desire for publicity prompted them into tho telling of fantastic stories. Tn any case the accused had admitted that ho'was tho cause of the injuries to tho warder, and that happening could scarcely ho accidental.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, but without malice. Sentence was postponed until Saturday.

WELLINGTON. February 7

The quarterly sessions of tho Supremo Court opened to-day. There was n light calendar. Cyril Eugene Walsh, charged with the theft on December 6 of a wallet and £1.5 in notes, the property of George Beveridge, an hotel barman, pleaded not guilty, and strongly denied that tho wallet had been handed to him. Tim jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and the accused was acquitted. George Wallace and Edward Lawson were found guilty of the theft of £l,'! from ilia person of T’aul Aurisch, and were remanded for sentence. PALMERSTON N., February 7.

In the Supremo Court to-day Corneille Hubert Do Mey Dalkemadc. a farmer, was found guilty of attempting to defraud the Crown, tho grantee of a bill of sale over stock owned by the accused, by selling eleven cows without consent. The jury recommended mercy in view of the hard struggle accused seemed to have had during his ten years of farming. Sentence was deferred.