PROBATION FOR ARSON

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21211, 6 September 1940, Page 10

PROBATION FOR ARSON

ACT TO SATISFY GRUDGE (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Thursday Henry Edward John Williams, aged 21 years, appeared for sentence before Mr Justice Fair in the Supreme Court to-day on a charge of arson, pointed out that the prisoner, a steady worker as a fish-curer, had had some mental weakness which he had overcome. On the occasion of his offence he had had the unusual experience of drinking gin. As a result he got into an altercation with a man in Freeman’s Bay, and to satisfy a grudge while in an abnormal mental state he set fire to the curtains in the man’s room. He then went and warned an old man who was in the house, and also gave an alarm to the fire brigade. Prisoner had been four weeks in gaol awaiting sentence. His Honour said the offence of arson was a very serious one, but the circumstances in this case were exceptional. Prisoner would be admitted to probation for three years, with a provision that he abstain absolutely from drinking intoxicating liquor in that time, and pay £lO costs at the rate of £1 per week.