MIND POISONED

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3637, 12 May 1927, Page 2

MIND POISONED

BY CRIMINAL LITERATURE.

YOUNG AIAN IN TROUBLE,

An appeal from the dock for leneiency was made by a young man, William Victor Haslam, 20' years of age, who appeared at the Wellington Supreme Court on Tuesday for sentence on-three, charges of breaking and entry and-theft. ' When asked if he had anything to say before sentence was passed on him, the prisoner said he came from England twelve months ago. He had been employed in a legal office at Home, and he tried to obtain work of a similar nature here, but without success. He then went bn a farm, and stayed there for nearly twelve months, and ultimately arrived at Palmerston North. “I had no ‘cobbers,’ ” he said, “and have been to only two places of amusement since I arrived. The way I have find to work, I have had a pretty hard time. I have been reading ‘blood and thunder’ stuff, and got an impulse to do this sort of thing. I gave the police every assistance, and all the stolen property has been recovered.” “The police regard this young man as the makings of a very cunning and dangerous criminal,” staled Mr. P. S. K. Maeassey, Crown Prosecutor. “When arrested he had' in his possession a complete kit of house-breaking instruments and twenty-three detonators. He was convicted of similar offences in England, and was warned to give up this reading.” His Honour (Mr. Justice MaeGregor) observed that the prisoner had been granted probation before leaving England for several offences. li was true that he had been reading literature of a criminal type, and'his mind seemed to have been poisoned. Probation was' out of I lie question. Haslam was was ordered to be detained in the Borslal Institution for a period not exceeding three years.