ABDUCTION CHARGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1940, Page 8

ABDUCTION CHARGE

ESCAPE FROM CUSTODY. SENTENCE OF IMPRISONMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WHAKATANE, September 11. Charged with abduction of a 13-year- ‘ old girl and escape from custody, Ar--1 thur Mitchell Wray, aged 25, appeared before Mr Walton. S.M., at Whakatane. He was sentenced to three months gaol on the first charge and remanded on the second. Wray pleaded guilty to the charges. The police said Wray, formerly a school bus driver, struck up a friendship with one of the children. He sold his business and left the district with the girl, going to Taupo, where he was arrested, living with her as Mr and Mrs Smith. Mr E. S. Barry, for accused, said Wray, with the consent of the girl’s family, had been going about with her for 12 months. She suggested to Wraj’ that they should go away together. At Taupo she set up house in a manner which would have done credit to any woman. She said the period was the happiest in her life. Counsel submitted that the hardships Wray suffered during his period at liberty in the bush after his escape would save him from penalty when he appeared in the Supreme Court, and asked that the second charge be withdrawn. “Abduction is considered a serious offence, and rightly so," said Mr Walton, sentencing accused. There was no possibility of Wray mistaking the age of the child as she was only 13.”