NONAGENARIAN SENTENCED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 262, 29 October 1908, Page 3

NONAGENARIAN SENTENCED.

FOR STEALING EMPTY SACKS. Robert McCullough, tlie nonagenerian who was convicted 'at Auckland on Saturday on a charge of stealing half-a-dozen sacks, was brought up 'before Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M., at the Police Court on Monday. Having had 14 previous convictions against him for theft, he tad teen remanded in order that it might be ascertained whether, as a result of his. exploits, he had a>me within the provisions ol the Habitual Criminals Act. _ . . Sergeant Hendry said that m his investigations he had found that McCullough could not be classed as a liatoitual criminal, inasmuch as it appeared that such a person had to be convicted on four separate occasions, on indictment. for theft, and McCullough had not been so convicted once. The Magistrate: What is your age? HcCullough: Ii was born on June 18, 1815. I will be 94 next June. The Magistrate then inquired from the a«ed offender whether he would go to the Costley Home if bis admission conld be procured there, but met witc a negative reply. "I don't care about going to these charitable places so long as I can knock about and get work, said McCullough. That McCullough s object in "knocking about" was in order that he might gel employment, wa>. however, disputed tfy Sergeant Hendry. When question as to the number oi his previous convictions, McCullough declared that they only amounted t.o three, not 14. "You can put on as manv more as you like "he added. I am not only prosecuted, but P« sec " 1 ; ed." In conclusion, he doubted whether there was any person of his age m the ■whole of Cireat Britain and Ireland, who had been' so liaiehly dealt with a? to ibc sent to .prison. ■McCullough, still refusing to go to the Costley Home, was committed to Mount Eden prison for three monthxAuckland Herald.