GAOL FOR THIEF

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12620, 3 December 1926, Page 6

GAOL FOR THIEF

1 DETECTIVE ASSAULTED “MAN OF VICIOUS DISPOSITION” “IT WAS A FOOLISH-ACT” “Ho is a man of very vicious disposition,” said Chief-Detective Ward of Donald Sutherland Murray Grant, a labourer, aged 53, who pleaded guilty at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to stealing £24, the property of John William Davies. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting Detective Kane while in the execution of his duty. “It was a foolish act on my part,” said the accused, who stated that he had intended to pay the money back. KEPT THE MONEY AND DISAPPEARED The chief-detective told the court that in October last a friend of the accused told him that • he wanted to buy a horse and cart. Grant said that he knew where a horse and cart could be bought, whereupon Davies, the friend, gave him £24 to buy them. Accused converted the money to his Own use, and disappeared. Detective Kane later saw accused, and told fiim to come to the detectives’ office. Accused walked quietly for a while, nntl then struck Kane a sevete blow on the jaw, “He has a long list of previous convictions, several of them for charges of dishonesty.” The magistrate (Mr K. Page, S.M.) said that ho proposed to' sentence accused to nine months’ imprisonment with hard labour on the charge of theft, and to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour on the charge of assault, the sentences to be cumulative.