CAREER OF CRIME OVER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 897, 14 February 1930, Page 1

CAREER OF CRIME OVER

Two Gray Brothers Gaoled

“FIRE-BUG” MYSTERIES SOLVED

Seven and Ten-Year Terms

Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Today. THE two Gray brothers, Charles Robert Gray, who was charged with attempted murder, arson and burglary, and James Wilfred Gray, who was charged with arson and burglary, were sentenced by Mr. Justice Adams in the Supreme Court today. Charles Robert Gray, the younger, aged 17, received a sentence of 10 years’ hard labour, and James Wilfred Gray, aged 19, one of seven years. Both youths were declared habitual criminals.

The sentences were imposed by Mr. Justice Adams after a long and studied review of all the crimes committed by the young men and of the circumstances .and after considering their punishment for several days. Ever since the Grays were saddled with the crimes the sentences they would receive have been commented upon by the public. This phase of the interest in the boys’ short career was proved by the crowded courtroom when sentence w r as passed. There was an air of expectancy before the court opened. Every word said in the proceedings was listened to almost breathlessly. “There are no fewer than 17 convictions of arson, seven of breaking and entering and theft, three of attempted arson, three of breaking and entering with theft, and one of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime in which both prisoners are involved,” said Judge Adams. “Charles Itobert Gray is convicted, in addition ty<hese offences, of attempted murder, of one case of arson, four cases of breaking and entering with theft, two cases of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, one case of mischief, namely, damage

to a motor-car.' The total list. of charges in respect to which Charles Robert Gray has to be dealt with this morning is 42. The long list of serious crimes in about six months demonstrates that each prisoner although young in years, is, in fact, a precocious criminal of the most dangerous class. Their wanton destruction of property has resulted in loss to the insurance companies and to owners in Christchurch estimated at no less than £50,000. Both have shown a callous disregard of human life by their attempt to set fire to St. Luke’s Schoolroom, an old wooden building, very easily destroyed by fire, when a social was being held in the upper rooms. It they had been successful one shudders to think what the possibilities might have been. “Charles Robert Gray showed the same callousness by shooting Mr. E. H. Hammond, though by great good fortune the bullet, did not penetrate sufficiently far. The Act indicates the extreme gravity of what was dene, when it is realised that the bullet stopped in its passage only when it was an inch from Mr. Hammond's heart. Only his extreme youth probably saves Gray from life Imprisonment.”