BLACKMAIL CHARGES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21400, 16 February 1935, Page 5

BLACKMAIL CHARGES

——♦— — THREE YEARS" IMPRISONMENT WITH HARD LABOUR (PBESS ASSOCIATIOH TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, February 15. A sentence of three years' imprisonment 'with hard labour was passed by Mr Justice Fair to-day on Alfred McDowell, a labourer, who was found guilty of blackmailing an Auckland professional man. Counsel for the prisoner said the complainant had admitted that he had been influenced in continuing his payments to the prisoner by a desire to retrieve money previously paid. Mr Justice Fair said that McDowell had been found guilty on 10 counts. In respect of three of them he was liable to life imprisonment. Blackmail was a peculiarly vicious and cruel offence. Once a victim had made a payment and committed himself in one way, he found himself exposed to a series of threats which exposed him to torture and might ruin his character. It might be that a man of strong character would make a stand from the beginning, but it so happened that the victim might not care to expose himself to having his character blackened, however he might clear himself. It was hard in this case to find a redeeming feature. The prisoner was comparatively young. There was no evidence that he was under pressure or in serious want and the money he had secured he had wasted.