THE BIRKETT FIRE

Hokitika Guardian, 31 July 1931, Page 5

THE BIRKETT FIRE

BROOKS GETS TWO YEARS. (By Telegraph—Per tress Association) WELLINGTON, July 31. In sentencing Brooks who had pleaded guilty to wilfully firing the garage of Birkett and Sons, on April 20th., his Honour Chief Justice Myers said he did not regard Brooks as the principal offender, and took that into consideration an determining the sentence. Let there be no mistake as to the serious view the Court takes of the crime of arson, he said. I regard it myself as one of the most serious of crimes. It was worse than mischief and fraud combined, because it involved an element of danger to human life. If you could properly be regarded as the person really responsible for this serious crime, I should have passed upon you a very lengthy term of imprisonment. T don’t, however, regard you as the real and principal offender. I myself formed the opinion which is confirmed by what the learned Crown Prosecutor tells me. • It is the theory of the police that you were very largely, perhaps altogether, a tool. Nevertheless I am not going to pass over the matter with anything like a nominal sentence. I am taking all the facts into consideration and the sentence of the Court is that you be kept in prison with hard labour for a term of two years.