NOVEL DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 221, 17 September 1924, Page 12

NOVEL DEFENCE.

EX-COLONEL ON TRIAL JURY NOT IMPRESSED. (From Onr Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 12. A novel defence was entered and a peculiar address made to the-jury by Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Thorn, who was charged before the Melbourne General Sessions with having embezzled £SO, the property of the Victorian Special Constabulary, of which he was a commanding officer. He was arrested in Sydney, living under anofher name, six weeks ago. Thorn rose in the box and told the jury that it was from choice that he conducted his own case, instead of availing himself of the counsel briefed by friends. In an impassioned address, following the Crown Prosecutor, he said that the Crown case was built up on "sob stuff." "The Crown Prosecutor mentioned the allegedly pathetic circumstances which had brought a man of my position to face a charge in the criminal dock," he said. "Crime is not' the monopoly of any particular class," he continued. "Many I a man of higher class than I represent has had to face a criminal charge, and many an innocent man has gone into the dock on a matter of principle, as I have done." "The Crown Prosecutor has referred to my war injuries. Such wounds are invariably a sore point with the afflicted person. No man can conduct his life in a manner to please everybody, and there are always unkind persons who' will point to men such as I, and make the superficial remark, 'Poor. devil, he got a crack on the head and can't help it!' "That is my eight years' experience of the wound to my head," he went on, vehemently. "But let mc tell you gentlemen that the wound has never had the slightest effect on my mental capacity, and I have taken great care to protect the exposed portion of my skull." Thorn wound up with the statement that he took the money to show up the terrible muddle into which the affairs of the special constabulary had suVc. The jury -found him guilty of .the charge, and the judge remanded him for sentence. Thorn lodged notice of appeal, and said he would fight the Crown all the way.