ALMOST BLACKMAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 37, 13 February 1931, Page 5

ALMOST BLACKMAIL.

demanding of money

TWO MEN PUNISHED,

I Theft which was described as aniountlinc, almost to-blackmail was punished bv°Mr. Justiec Herdman in the Supreme Court to-day by terms of imprisonment. Two young men, Francis Ernest Henry Pierce, a seaman, aged 24, and James Lewis, aged IS, wlio had been joined in the crime, had been found guilty of demanding money with intent to steal. Mr. Noble on behalf of the prisoners, said Pierce'was from Whangarei and came of a respectable family. Lewis was from Canada and had been in Auckland only four or five months. , His Honor said: "I look upon tins offence as being a very grave one, one of the gravest in the Crimes Act. It amounts practically to blackmailing. Apparently the prisoner formed the notion of getting into touch with n young man trom Wellington, and he went" down to tha waterfront with one of them, his Honor added. Lewis went down afterwards and accused him of misbehaving himself, and demanded money. Pierce was deliberately a party to a serious crime, and ho could not be admitted to probation. Lewis deserved to be severely punished. Lewis was senteueed to two years' imprisonment with hard labour, and Pierce to three .months.