PERJURER GAOLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 261, 3 November 1932, Page 5

PERJURER GAOLED.

THREE YEARS' HARD LABOUR. « EYE-WITNESS » WHO WAS NOT THERE. GRAVITY OF THE OFFENCE. The gravity of the ei'ime of perjury was emphasised by Mr. Justice Herdman in the Supreme Court to-day when he passed sentence on Ernest Cheadle, who had been found guilty of giving false . evidence in the Supreme Court during the hearing of a claim for damages last August. Cheadle wae sent to prison for three years with hard labour. On behalf of accused, Mr. Moody said Cheadle had never been convicted of any criminal offence. Counsel also mentioned that accused had received serious injuries in a motor accident, and said that these might possibly have affected his mentality. Passing sentence, his Honor said: "This is an unusual case and one in which it is necessary to impose a salutary sentence, partly for the reason that you must be adequately punished for having committed such a eerious crime, and partly as a warning to those who may be disposed to imitate your bad example. "I'agree entirely with the verdict of the jury. The evidence left them with no alternative but to convict. I don't propose to waste time by uttering platitudes about keeping the wells of justice pure.. If I did that, I Would only be emphasising the obvious, for everyone knows that, unless witnesses are honest, justice cannot be done. If dishonesty comes in at one door justice goes out at another door." The proceeding in which accused gave evidence was an action to recover a substantial.eum by way of damages for negligence. Plaintiff alleged that he had been injured by a motor driver's negligence. Plaintiff's case rested mainly upon Cheadle's evidence, for he declared that he saw the accident. It appeared at the trial that he was the only eye-witness. It now transpired that he was not there at all, that his evidence at the trial wae false and that he played a part in conspiring to defraud an insurance company and to mislead a jury. "I have said enough," concluded his Honor, "to make the gravity of your offence plain, and I hope that the result of these proceedings will make it plain to others who may be inclined to do as you have done, that misleading a Court of Justice is followed by serious consequences."