HIGHLY DEVELOPED.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 139, 18 July 1914, Page 12

HIGHLY DEVELOPED.

CRIMINAL INSTINCTS.

BOY AND BLIND MAN. Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 17. ~ An unkempt and rather under-sized youngster of 15 years, who came before Mr P. Y. Frazer, S.M., this morning, admitted an offence which showed an abnormal criminal development of an educated kind. He had been acting as guide to a blind organ-grinder called ! Pete, and had evolved a system of fraud by which he had since Februaryextracted from the old man, in sums ranging from £1 to £5, the amount of £2O. When the organ-grinder was in Christchurch he was robbed of something like £6OO. He came on to Auckland, bringing the lad with him as guide, and the boy in February delighted his ears with tlie story that he had got on - the track of the money, which was recoverable. He said that he had got hold of two men who ha# I gone over to Sydney with the thief, and | they had informed him that the thief J had died there of blood-poisoning, but that prior to his death he had confessed the theft, and directed that restitution should foie made. The boy said he was making enquiries, with a view to recovering the money, and from time to time he read the blind man to support this story, and got from him money, which he said was necessary for the search. He also told Pete that he could obtain compensation from the Government for the accident that had caused his blindness,, and he conducted proceedings to this end also, writing. 4 ' fake." letters and drawing money said to be necessary for preliminaries. Pete at one stage got suspicious, because (someone told him that a letter he had got was in a boy's handwriting, so the j boy afterwards got the letters typed. "I have one here," said ChiefDetective McMahon, producing a document, which read: "Send me *£l. Look out, P' . Menzies, detective." Mr McMahon explained that the "P-" stood for "Pete," and "Menzies '' was the mythical detective who was making enquiries about the blind man's lost money. The boy had gone to a typist's office and had the letter typed for 6d. "But it is strange that anyone in a typist's office should type a letter like that for a boy," exclaimed the magistrate.

We are enquiring about that, " said Mr McMahon. Detective Hammond said he knew the stock from which the boy sprang, and that all the lad's brothers showed similar tendencies.

Remarking on the highly developed criminal instinct of the lad, his Worship committed the lad to the Burnham Industrial School, and informed him that such an offence as this by .a man would mean a sentence of five years in gaol.