A CAREER OF CRIME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 209, 4 March 1914, Page 7

A CAREER OF CRIME.

PRISONER'S STRANGE STORY. : • REQUEST FOR SUROICAL OPERATION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Monday. . A tliousand-dollar operation was held by a prisoner at the Supreme Court this 'afternoon to be the barrier between himself and the pure, honest life lie led up till seven years ago. ' The prisoner was a young man named Evelyn Vine Kitson, who pleaded guilty to having obtained money by false pretences at Hamilton, and attempted sui'cide at Wellington. When asked if he had anything to say lie made a rambling statement about being sorry for his career of crime, and explained how ■hard it was to reform. llis first lapse •was due to a quixotic action, and he had become hardened as a result of his -incarceration. The gaol, he said, crushed all the refinement of fine feeling in a man, and there was absolutely nothing ■for the intellect to feed upon. Prisoner »;aid lie had tried to lead a good life in ■Tahiti, but the French had reduced persecution to a fine art. When he arrived in Wellington he heard that the police were after him. and rather than stand in a felon's dock again and be a sconf for all men, he determined to end his life and took carbolic acid, which ■liearly, but not quite, killed him. Kitson said that the cause of his trouble could be removed by an operation which he could not afford. lie had a bone pressing 011 his brain, and if it were removed he would be all right again. His earlier life had not been clouded with sin. Prisoner handed up A letter to the Bench.

■• In answer to the .Judge, Kitson admitted having been convicted in New •South Wales, Queensland and other places of false pretences, theft, forgery and attempted suicide. His Honor said the sentence of the Court would be that prisoner would be sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment and declared an habitual criminal. •The letter prisoner had handed up would be placed before the gaol surgeon, who was an able man. and prisoner would be examined to see if his story about a bone pressing on his brain were correct. If such an operation as was alleged were necessary, it might have a considerable influence on his future.