LATE CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 2 October 1930, Page 2

LATE CABLE NEWS

ROGUE AND VAGABOND

CLERGYMAN’S CONVICTION

LONDON, Sepemher 17. John Patterson, aged 33, a clergyman, who said lie was ordained in Australia, made an unsuccessful appeal to Loudon sessions to-day against his conviction and sentence of three months’ imprisonment as a. rogue and vagabond. Patterson was arrested on July 11 following certain incidents in Raihilies and Oxford streets. Four police officers and a doctor gave evidence in support of the conviction. The Rev. David Morse of All Saints’, Highgate, said he and accused had lived together in Australia and that Patterson was a thoroughly decentliving and decent-minded man. Patterson said he was the son of a Northumberland miner. He had educated himself by scholarships. After serving for two years in the army lie took up mission work with the Church Army and went to Australia, where he had a parish. He returned to England last year, after his ordination ns a deacon and priest. No complaint had been made against him previously. On July 11 lie went for a walk with the object of tiring himself out, as lie had been suffering from insomnia. He denied that he smiled at pnssers-by or made a certain remark, Rev, Henry Hose, viear of St. Mary’s Munster square, to whom Patterson had been appointed, grave evidence of Ids past good conduct. Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, N K.C., on behalf of Patterson, pointed out that his career ns a clergyman ended with his conviction. The Church Army had offered to find employment for him at Home and eventually abroad.

r l lie court upheld the conviction hut squashed the sentence and ordered Patterson’s release on two years’ probation. The magistrate remarked that Paterson was given a wonderful opportunity to rehabilitate himself.

PRINCESS ELIZABETH. PARTY TO SMALL FRIENDS. LONDON, September 16. Princess Elizabeth presided at the tea table on the occasion of a party given to 20 of her small Glamis friends. The party took place in the* castle, and the principal attraction of the afternoon was a visit to the . new baby, Princess Elizabeth’s sister. TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE. FRENCH METHOD IMPUGNED.

' PARIS, September 17. There was never a more glaring travesty of French methods of justice

than that involved hy an elaborate reconstruction at Le Touquet of the Wilson imirder of 1928.

'the accused, a boy, of 16 named Le Loutre, arrived handcuffed to a gendarme. While a cordon of police held in check an enormous crowd of England girls and men in bathing costumes and smartly-dressed French women, who clustered excitedly near the scene, Le Loutre was freed of the handcuffs and told to> sit where he is supposed to have been seen on the day of the murder.

Then with a dramatic gesture the judge raised his hand and 31. 3latras, who is alleged to have seen the youth just before the murder, tcok the eentre of the “stage.” Smoking a cigarette. 3!atras stalked along the tram lines, while hundreds of cameras clicked, until lie reached the youth, pale, nervous, sitting on the roadside. There 31atins stopped. He told Le Loutre how to hold his hands and how to place his can and, turning to the judge, said: “Now I formally recognise him.” Le Loutre’s lawyer nrotested energetically, and he and the judge had a heated argument, which the crowd enjoyed immensely. Meanwhile a soundmovie - wagon had arrived to film the scene.

After that the unfortunate youth was, taken to various places in the woods, the scenes of other attacks. One of the women concerned had a fit- of hysterics. The judge refused the sobbing hoy’s appeal and made him tell the story in detail. A physicial wreck, the hoy was then removed to the police station, where the evidence of the reconstruction was written down.

The crowd dissolved, thoroughly sat, isfied with its free “show.”

The victim of the murder thus “j>e„ constructed” was n Mre Wilson. Mat. nis, the chjef witness against the boy, was the leader of the casino orchestra, and at the time of the tragedy he was arrested and questioned for 15 hours.