DRUG-TAKER’S CAREER

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1923, Page 4

DRUG-TAKER’S CAREER

LONDON, Feb. 3. Sentence ol three years' penal servitude' was passed at the London Sessions yesterday on Robert Rivoll Canute, ill, who was found guilty on two .•barges of theft and fraud, which included ihe obtaining by i,d-e pretences ol CRI2 from ibe Irish Distress Committee on a |dea that be bad been kidnapped and robbed by Sili ll I'ciuers. "According to the ease for the prosecution this man is an extremely .lever, persistent, phiu-ihle. and cunning scoundrel," declared -Mr Pcrcival ! bii ke in op M.iiig the .-0-.’. At the office of the committee he slated lhaC during the war be rose (o the rank of genera!, that he went to Ireland in 1015), was kidnapped by the Irish Republican Army in 1',)22, and rubbed of £Si2, and warned that if he did not leave Ireland lie would be shot, lie bad, he said, arrived in l.odnon penniless, and had slept on the Embankment. “Not one of these statements was true,” said -Mr Clarke. After evidence had been given, Mr Clarke gave detail- of Cai-iuu-’s career, which bad been ascertained by Urnindite. lie enlisted in the Army in ISOS. In 1903 he was discharged as medically unfit. Having re-enlisted in 101 I lie was. two years later, sentenced to Is months’ imprisonment for housebreaking. Since hi- discharge from the Army in 191!) he had defrauded many people. He was addicted to the use of drugs, which be obtained by posing aa doctor. At Pimlico be ran up a bill at a boarding bouse and proposed to the daughter of the proprietress. At the same time be suggested he bad a lot of money, and would settle £I,OOO a year on the parents if they allowed him to liuirrv the girl.