LONGER TERM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 8

LONGER TERM.

PRISON ESCAPEE.

HOSPITAL PATIENT.

THOMAS WILLIAM WILSON. DEPORTED FROM AMERICA. Stating tliat lie seemed' to be a dangerous and habitual criminal and that since liis escape he had committed further crimes, Mr. Justice Fair this morning sentenced Thomas William Wilson (33) to twelve months' imprisonment, to bo served at the expiration of the five yearn which Wilson was serving when he escaped from custody in December, 1031. Wilson was arrested on the Mariposa recently when he was travelling to Australia to which country he hau been deported from America. Recalling that Wilson had escaped in 1931, from the Auckland Hospital to which he had been sent from gaol, Mr. Noble.said that prisoner was only obeying a natural instinct to walk away from custody.

His Honor, having in mind that the prisoner escaped in a motor car, reminded counsel that ho had driven away. Mr. Noble then referred to correspondence which had passed between Wilson and the authorities in New Zealand when Wilson was in America. The controller of prisons had informed hi/n that he would not be allowed to land in New Zealand if he returned. Counsel asked that the prisoner be allowed to go to Australia. He had not come back to the Dominion of his own will. His Honor: That is in effect a request that I should release him from serving the balance of five years' imprisonment. Mr. Noble: It may be that it is a contest between what is right and what is expedient.

His Honor said that the correspondence quoted by Mr. Noble merely conveyed tlio fact that Wilson would not be permitted to return to the Dominion and that if he did he would be arrested and would have to complete the balance of his sentence. The plea made by counsel might perhaps be addressed to somo other body at a later date. Prisoner's previous record was bad and since his escape it was bad. There was in his favour only the fact that there was no form of violence in his escape. The crimes committed in other countries would only be taken into consideration in assessing his character, added his Honor. A sentence of twelve months' imprisonment, cumulative on that to which Wilson had been previously sentenced— five years—was then imposed.