91 YEARS’ GAOL

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30192, 25 July 1963, Page 14

91 YEARS’ GAOL

Escaper From Station Cells (N.Z. Press Association) ROTORUA, July 24. Prison sentences totalling nine years and a half were imposed on Kenneth William Joseph Kerr, aged 36, one of the four men who escaped from the Rotorua police station cells on July 14, when he appealed before Mr G. J. Donne, S.M., for sentence in the Magistrate’s Court at Rotorua. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on an escaping from lawful custody count, two years and a half for converting a car at Auckland on April 15, two years and a half for stealing a car at Wellington on June 11, and two years and a half for converting a van at Rotorua on July 14. The Magistrate said these terms were to be cumulative. Kerr was also sentenced to two years and a half on a charge of converting a car near Patea on July 15, and three months on charges of stealing a set of number plates. These sentences will be concurrent.

“Some of you fellows and the public who passively and actively assist you, think escaping is an act which needs praise,” said the Magistrate. It should be remembered that an escaper was certain to commit further crimes, and cost the taxpayer a lot of money in subsequent searching, the Magistrate said.