VERY BAD REcCORDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1932, Page 7

VERY BAD REcCORDS.

DARTMOOR MUTINEERS. LONDON, May 10. The sentences passed by the judge, Lord Finlay, on the Dartmoor mutineers aggregated 100 years, less four months. They will begin when the sentences the men are now serving expire and will be served elsewhere than at Dartmoor. Thomas Davis, described by the police as "one of the worst West End pests, a vitriol thrower and blackmailer, and a danger to society," received a sentence of twelve years' penal servitude for wounding two days before the riot Officer Birch, whom he declared he was determined to mark. The mutineers were sentenced thus: Rioting and malicious damage, Conning and lbbetson, ten years; Smith, Mason and Bullows, eight years. Malicious damage, Jackson, sis years; Stoddart and Sparks, four years; Burgess, Moore, Muir, Roberts, Taylor, Dewhurst and Carton, three years; Horne, 21 months. Damage, but recommended for leniency, Delmar and James, 18 months; Kavanagli, 15 months; Cosgrove, 20 months; Gardner and Tappenden, six months. Brown, charged with maliciously wounding Officer Udy, was, according to counsel, one decent man in Dartmooi s Sodom and Gomorrah. He was found not guilty, and returned to prison to complete his existing sentence. The prisoners' records showed principally thefts and crimes of violence. Jackson and Sparks belonged to a dangerous gang of motor bandits. Sparks had lived with a woman called the "Bobbed Hair Bandit," who shared in the gang's attempt to rescue him froTn Wandsworth, by throwing ropes over the gaol wall, but Sparks was caught as he was about to climb out. Immediately the trial ended a fleet of motor cars drove the handcuffed pris oners, most of whom were in a jocular mood, to distant gaols, thereby terminating their Dartmoor associations.