SUPREME COURT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 90, 17 August 1915, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

Per Press Association. Dunedin, August lo

At the criminal quarterly sittings of the Supreme Court, John Bell McClymont was acquitted on a charge of stealing £3 14s lid, purchase mdUcy of a sword presented by him to George Munro Catto, His Honor pointing out that whi la the prosecution contended that the presentation was a private one, the Government auditor had passed it as a regimental account. In the remaining one ol three charges formulated against MeClymont, that ; r stealing £2l 7s. the amount of a c h<':pio paid to him as the share of can teen profits of the 14th (South Otago) Regiment, the jury, after four hours’ retirement, failed to agree, and a new trial was ordered to take place on Monday.

Dunedin, August 1G

John Bell 'MeClymont stood his retrial at the Supreme Court to-day on a charge of stealing £2l 7s, canteen money of the Fourteenth Regiment, and was acquitted. In summing up, J udge Sim commented on the accused’s good fortune in having been acquitted on a former charge, and expressed the opinion that accused did not leave the court with an unstained character. British officers were supposed to he gentlemen, and men of honor and integrity, and it was clear that accused was not that.

His Honor sentenced John Robert Henderson to one year’s imprisonment with hard labor, on several charges of stealing moneys of the regiment, expressing his regret that a promising career had been cancelled.