Paroled Man Extradited

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30686, 27 February 1965, Page 3

Paroled Man Extradited

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 26.

Charles Gillen, aged 68, could not be extradited to Australia because be was on parole from an unfinished prison sentence in New Zealand, his counsel said in the Magistrate’s Court today. Detective-Sergeant K. W. Nicholson, of Sydney, has applied for Gillen’s extradition on a 10-year-old Australian charge of abduction. The application was granted by Mr J. B. Thomson, S.M.

Detective-Sergeant I. A. Mills appeared for the police, and Mr G. Joseph for Gillen. The Court was told by Mr Joseph and Detective-Ser-geant Mills that it was common ground that the person named in the provisional warrant issued in Sydney as William James Allis was, in fact, Gillen.

Detective-Sergeant Nicholson said Gillen was personally known to him. He' was present at the Balmain, New South Wales, police station on January 1, 1956, when Gillen, then known as Allis, was arrested for abduction. He said he was also present in court on January 3, 1956, when Gillen failed to appear to answer the charge. To Mr Joseph, DetectiveSergeant Nicholson said he was aware that in 1962 Gillen was sentenced in the Auck-

land Supreme Court to three and a-half years’ imprisonment and that he had been released on parole just over two weeks ago with about a year of his sentence to run. The original sentence had

been increased by six months because of his escape from prison.

Mr Joseph said that to make an extradition order was to usurp the powers of the Minister of Justice to keep Gillen on parole. Further, to send Gillen back to Australia would be against natural justice. He was an old man and the offence with which he was to be charged had been committed 10 years ago.

The Magistrate said it could not be maintained that the proceedings were oppressive because the offence was 10 years old. He did not agree that the parole prohibited extradition. It was not likely Gillen would be charged with a breach of his parole when the authorities knew he had been taken in custody to Australia.