PROTECTING THE PUBLIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 60, 2 June 1927, Page 1

PROTECTING THE PUBLIC

HOUSEBREAKERS GET FIVE YEARS DANGEROUS AND DARING CRIMINALS “I FIND from the police reports that you are daring and 1 dangerous criminals,” said His Honour Mr Justice Herdman at the Supreme Court this morning in sentencing prisoners who pleaded guilty in the Lower Court to charges of breaking and entering.

“Housebreaking," added His Honour, “is a specially serious offence, as it runs hand-in-hand with crimes of violence."

The prisoners were Jack Johnston, aged 28 years, and Frank Bailer, aged 24 (against whom were nine charges of breaking and entering and theft), and Herbert Cooper, aged 24, who had pleaded guilty to one charge of theft. A FORMIDABLE LIST Addressing Bailer, his Honour said that in 1920 he had been convicted on a similar charge at Gisborne, and at Auckland in 1923, when four charges had been preferred against him. In 1918 Johnston had been convicted of the theft of a motor-car at New Plymouth, and also on two charges Of housebreaking in 1919. Again in 1923 he had been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on charges of breaking and entering. The police list, said his Honour, showed that for some years they had both been leading criminal careers. His business that morning was to determine what was an adequate punishment for the offences they had committed. He had taken into account their past record and the lengths to which they had gone in overstepping the mark which separates a criminal from a law-abiding citizen. It was the duty of the court to endeavour, by the punishment it meted out, to see that the safety of human beings and the security of property was maintained. A SERIOUS OFFENCE A few—a very few—members of the

community were more concerned about the housebreaker than they were about the houseowner whose property had been unlawfully seized, remarked his Honour. They thought it was more important to consider the thief than to protect the community from thieving. But the bulk of the people thought otherwise. They believed that order must be maintained and that a man’s property should be sacrosanct. “I find, In studying your lists,” said his Honour, “that two of you have been convicted before of grave offences such as housebreaking. “From the police reports I find you are daring and dangerous criminals, and the fact that you have committed the offences with which I have to deal confirms the police statement. “I note that you have broken into a number of places, that you would not hesitate to use explosives and that, by unlawful means, you have acquired property to the value of £7OO. Your record shows that you prefer to live by nefarious ways rather than to work honestly.” A sentence of five years’ hard labour was imposed upon Johnston and Bailer, both being also declared habitual criminals. Cooper, who, his Honour stated, had not been involved in charges of such a serious nature, was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment with hard labour. An appeal for reconsideration of their sentences was made by Bailer and Johnston. Their removal was ordered.