TWENTY YEARS' GAOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 92, 19 April 1932, Page 8

TWENTY YEARS' GAOL.

"THE CAT" IN ADDITION. THREE MEN SENTENCED. ROBBERY AND SHOOTING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 15. There have been protests from time to time that kind-hearted judges display too freely the quality .of mercy, and persons guilty of violent crime get off with sentences that are far too light. This week, however, Victorian judges have shown that they are campaigning against violence.

Three men convicted of a sensational daylight hold-up of a cashier from Coles, Ltd., in Melbourne, and the shooting of Constable Derhain were each sentenced to 20 years' gaol and a flogging with the cat-'o'-nine tails. The men concerned are James Adams (30), Harold Williams (27) and Hugh Martin (2(5). They attempted to steal £980, which the cashier was carrying from the bank, and when Constable Derliam attempted to stop them, one of the men fired and wounded Derhain. He recovered after a long time in hospital. Mr. Justice McFarlan, sentencing the men, said the crime was a particularly callous one, and they were lucky that they were not facing a murder charge. He would show them no mercy. His sentences proved that these were no idle words. Williams, two days later, was charged before Judge Woinarski, in the General Sessions Court, with robbery in company, and found guilty. In this case the victim was manhandled and robbed of a watch and five shillings. "There is no doubt about your guilt," said tlie judge when the jury had brought in its verdict. "Violence towards unsuspecting citizens must be put down with a strong hand." Having been informed of the sentence passed upon Williams the same week, Judge Woinarski added a further three years' hard labour and another twelve strokes of the cat-o'-nine tails. He refused to make the sentence concurrent with the previous one, so that for the two cases Williams faces a gaol sentence of 23 years. j It is probable that "the cat" will be administered. Under the Labour Government "the cat" has been watered down to strokes from the birch; but in view of the defeat of the Victorian Labour Government, and the probability of a Nationalist Government to follow it, Williams and his companions in crime will doubtless receive the full sentence. The "cat" is administered to the prisoner when he is tied to a triangle; but for the birching, the prisoner is laid over a leather "horse" and thrashed on the buttocks.