BOY’S CAREER OF CRIME

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27961, 7 May 1956, Page 6

BOY’S CAREER OF CRIME

NINETEEN CHARGES OF DISHONESTY PRIEST CRITICISED BY PROSECUTOR (New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, May 5. A boy aged 14’ years 11 months admitted in the Invercargill Children’s Court yesterday 19 charges of breaking and entering, theft, and car conversion. He was committed to the Tare of the Child Welfare Department. The breaking and entering and theft counts concerned goods of a total value of £l6O. Cars converted were valued at £2331, and thefts from cars concerned goods valued at £8 16s>. Senior-Detective A. W. McDougall said the boy had indulged in a career of crime that included some serious thefts, many of which had been committed in the early hours of the morning after he had apparently gone to bed. It was a pity that after the property from the first three thefts had been returned by Father J. A. McCarthy, the priest ’had refused to disclose where he got the stolen goods, said Senior-Detective McDougall. No doubt if the police had known the boy had been responsible for the first three thefts, he would have been apprehended. and his future attempts at crime curtailed. The goods taken in the first three offences had been left in a sack in- 1 side the gate on the front lawn of the ! boy’s home, with a bogus note in the ‘ bag to mislead his father, said Senior-1 Detective McDougall. This ruse failed, however, and the father took the boy - and the bag to Father McCarthy. The boy, knowing his identity was going to be hidden, had continued on his career of crime, said Senior-De-tective McDougall. This career included, as well as a number of thefts, an escapade in which ■ he and another boy spent two lights, in an empty house, and another night in a shed on private property, and several cases of car conversion. “Incorrigible” Youth The series of offences began last November and continued until last month, Senior-Detective McDougall said. On April 26 the boy, in company with another, ran away from home, and. after spending several nights in private homes, parks and reserves, took a car and made for Chaslands, 50 miles east of Invercargill.: They were eventually located on May 1 after they had returned to Invercargill, and abandoned the car near 1 the racecourse. The boys had to be treated like. criminals and locked in the cells, said i Senior-Detective McDougall. The youth in the present case was '‘incorrigible.” and even after he had been interviewed by the police about i various thefts which he had admitted, had gone out again and continued his i stealing excursions, Senior-Delectivc McDougall said. The boy’s father, who appeared in Court, said he had done what he could to guide the boy, but he “could not stand at the door of his room all night and watch him.” It was a great pity the boy was just not old enough to send to Borstal, said Mr Stewart Hardy, S.M. It was a dreadful list for a boy of that age. j The Magistrate said he had been dis- ■ turbed by what Senior-Detective McDougall had said about Father McCarthy’s action, which had, in part, encouraged the boy to continue on his I career of crime. Whatever the priest’s motive had! been, it seemed to have been a mis-' guided one in which the boy’s identity had been covered and’ he was able to continue his life of crime, said the Magistrate.