The Notorious Butler.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3533, 22 April 1880, Page 2

The Notorious Butler.

Sentence of the Prisoner.

Dunedin, Thsday. This morning Butler pleaded guilty to the burglary at Mr Stamper's house, but not guilty to stealing books from the Catholic Church, but the jury without leaving the box found him guilty. At the suggestion of ths Bench, the Crown Prosecutor entered a nolle prosequi in respect to attempting .to shoot the constable. The prisoner in answer to the usual challenge said nothing. The judge, in passing sentence, said j-^" It is evident that during the whole of your life you hare committed crime. From your earliest childhood you have been a persistent enemy of society. Where courts have to dispose of such habitual criminals as you, it is absolutely necessary that such punishment should be carried out; as will prevent the danger to society which must necessarily ensue, if such characters as yourself are at large. The sentence I am about to pass, you will distinctly understand is not measured in any degree by what took place recently. On that charge you were acquitted, such verdict by no means exonerates you from grave suspicions. Iv respect' to that charge I concur in that verdict, not ■ because lam convinced of your innocencp, but because in my opinion the evidence | brought against you was not sufficient to justify a verdict of guilty. I particularly wish you to understand that the suspicions which must weigh on the minds of everybody, in respect to that, the transaction does not affect in the least the sentence I am going to pronounce. The sentence I pronounce is based on your previous career, and on the circumstance that immediately after you were let out of gaol, you

commenced again a career of crime, larceny and burglary. The latter accompanied (though that is not put aitainst, you) by # arson. The sentence of the Court is in respect to burglary, that you be kept in ponal servitude for eighteen years, for larceny, after the previous conviction 10 years! This is practically 13 (P) years. Haggett intimated- he would consult with the Attorney-General as to whether the other indictments of murder should be proceeded with. _^