Mercy To Blind Man

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

Mercy To Blind Man

BLIND since he was 27, 5 5-year-old Samuel Fildes had spent 28 years in prison before he appeared in the dock at Chester Assizes. Facing Mr. Justice Hilbery, this Shaw Heath, StockpOrt, basket-maker, admitted stealing £2 and two charges of attempted arson, and heard his "most appalling" criminal record detailed. The judge asked Fildes for an explanation. "I don't think it is any use saying anything," came the reply. "If you have any consideration for a man who is totally blind, you would never put him in a prison to be boxed up like a dog in a cell. You would think of placing me in a home." Observing that lie understood that Fildes, a convict on license, would have to complete 34fi days of a previous term, Mr. Justice Hilbery passed sentence of one day's imprisonment. That meant ho would havo to complete his unfinished sentence. "X do that in the hope that even now you will be encouraged to make one more effort to give "up dishonesty and overcome your criminal tendencies," added the judge. Fildes, who carried a white stick, thanked the judge as lie. was piloted out of the dock by warders. The Court had been told that Fildes began his criminal career at the age of eight, for he was sent to an industrial school in 1592 for stealing money. i

Ho was there for six years, and was . then at a reformatory for four years. Exclusive of these terms, his een- [ tences of imprisonment totalled 28 years. He had served three terms of five years' penal servitude for arson and two terms of three years for attempted arson and stealing. ■ His last sentence of five years was imposed at Manchester Assizes ia 1934. Ho was released on license a year ago, and placed under supervision. According to the police, there was "not much good" to say of Fildes, who struck terror into the district where 3ie lived when lie was out of gaol. Once he had tried to set fire to a children's home. Mr. Francis Williams, prosecuting in tho present charges, described Fildes as a man with an obsession of grievances against certain people, and commented that he had been dealt with in an extraordinarily severe manner when he had begun his criminal career. Fildes had lived with a Mr. and Mrs. Minshull, of Shaw Heath, and Mrs. Minshull gave him £2 to settle some accounts for her. He failed to pay the accounts, and did not return. A police ofiicer, who saw Fildes at Stockport at six o'clock in the mornin«" asked him where lie had boon all night! "All over the town," ho replied. "I havo set fire to the Dividend Stores in Chatham Street and to St. Matthew's Church. I am fed up, and want to irive myself up."