MYSTERIES SOLVED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 528, 4 December 1928, Page 1

MYSTERIES SOLVED

YOUTH ADMITS SIXTEEN ROBBERIES COMMITTED TO BORSTAL Pleading guilty at the Police Court to 16 charges of theft, involving the sum of £.37, from dwellings in the Remuera, Mount Eden and Epsom districts, Roy Taylor, a clerk, aged 17, was this morning committed to the Borstal Institute for three years. A feature of the case was that in almost every instance the houses ransacked were owned by women. The householders who suffered by the depredations of the young thief were: Ruby Doreen Neithe, Emily Jane Bruce, Veronica Mynott, Lucy Connors, Ada Barker, Julia Gaze, Kathleen Choyce, Eileen Galbraith, Arthur Le Sieur, Ellen Schofield, Ethel Fanny Housley, Elizabeth Young and Harry Feter Casse. Taylor was originally charged with breaking, entering and theft, but Chief-Detective Hammond asked that the charges be amended to common theft. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: Quite right, too. The boy is only 17 and we do not 'wish to put the country to the expense of trying hirh at the Supreme Court. MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAVED The probation officer, Mr. W. J. Campbell, mentioned that Taylor’s mother, who was a fine woman, had come to him two years ago complaining that she could do nothing with the boy. Unfortunately no action could then be taken as there was no provision for such cases in the Act. Mr. Hunt: If there had been provision in the Act for such a case you could have saved him from this. It should be possible to bring these boys before you without there being any specific charge. Chief-Detective Hammond: It would save both the police -and the boy a great deal of trouble. Mr. Campbell recommended that Taylor be sent to the Borstal as the charges were serious and the boy might cultivate some common sense before coming out. “So now you have accounted for 3 6 of these troublesome robberies,” remarked Mr. Hunt to the chief-detec-tive as Taylor left the dock.