FLOGGINGS ORDERED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 116, 19 May 1933, Page 7

FLOGGINGS ORDERED.

FOUR LONDON BANDITS. THREAT TO WITNESSES. Four men —one of them "a ten or of the West End"—were at the Old Bailey last month ordered. to be flogged. With another man they had been concerned in robbing a gavage proprietor named Naylor, of £200, after he had "been attacked and seriously injured outside a house in London. It was stated tlmt two girls who had •riven evidence in the case had been threatened with a thrashing. Eighteen strokes of the' birch wei e ordered for each of tlie four prisoners, and in addition they were sentenced to penal Servitude for terms tip to six years. All were young men. The Prosecutor said of one man, Charles Ford:—"He belongs to a gang who put witnesses in fear of coming to court, or pay them not to. He is a member of a dangerous gang olracccourse and West End frequenters. When he is in drink he is a menace to the com' rnunity." A second man, Puttnam, was also a member of a dangerous gang of violent racecourse frequenters. He was cool and calculating, and the dominating mind at the back of thc_ crime The other prisoners were afraid of him. At the temporary rolice Court at St. Pancras ■ Hospital, a police officer had to draw liis truncliedn when Puttnam made a move towards Tilly (another prisoner), and shouted, "Let me get at him. I will be topped for him." The Recorder (Sir Ernest Wild, ll.U): What does that mean?— Hanged for him. .. The Recorder asked if witnesses m the case had been intimidated. Inspector Sands said that two girls who had given evidence had been threatened with a thrashing. The police were giving them every protection. Mr. Naylor, the prosecutor, was a respectable man. He (the officer) understood that as a result of this affair he had ' had to shut up his garage business at Bristol. It was a one-man business. Mr. Naylor would perhaps be deaf for the rest of his life, and he might well have been killed. v The Recorder said it was clear that accused were all determined to rob this unfortunate, foolish fellow from Bristol, knowing he had more money than wits and some drink in him. "It is one of the appalling features of these later days," continued the Recorder, "that these crimes of violence and lawlessness are almost invariably committed by comparatively yoting men." The Recorder referred to the conduct of a cabman named Jack Brooks, and said that it was owing to his public spirit that the men were arrested. He awarded him £">. Sir Ernest Wild added: —"If there should be the slightest attempt by anyone in the gallery or elsewhere to intimidate or frighten witnesses in this case the police will protect them, and if I the perpetrators are found and brought to justice they will be treated with the I utmost rigour -«f the> law."