COMPLAINT ABOUT DAMP CELL

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22121, 17 June 1937, Page 4

COMPLAINT ABOUT DAMP CELL

ALLEGATIONS OF PRISONERS COUNSEL DENIED [THE PRESS Special Service.] DUNEDIN, June 16. A complaint about the condition of a cell at the city police station was made on behalf of his client, by Mr A. G. Neill, at the conclusion of the hearing of a charge of theft at the City Police Court to-day. "The night my client was put into gaol," Mr Neill sain, "he suffered from a very bad cold. He found that where he was sleeping he could write his name in moisture on a blanket." Mr Neill went on to say that it was inhumane that a prisoner should be made to sleep in a water-drenched cell. The Magistrate (Mr J. R. Bartholomew. S.M.) replied that the matter hardly came within his sphere, and that representations should be made in the proper quarter. Commenting on Mr Neill's complaint later in the day, Inspector Cameron said that the lock-up cell where the offender had been confined was perfectly dry. and that no mention of its condition had been made to him or to the gaoler either by Mr Neill or his client. Inspector Cameron also emphasised that prisoners were invariably given sufficient blankets to ensure warmth, and in some cases as many as they desired. A reporter inspected the cell complained of by Mr Neill, and found it completely free from any trace of, L moisture