Young man jailed to ‘protect community’

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 4

Young man jailed to ‘protect community’

A youth with "a frightful list of previous convictions” was jailed for three years byMr Justice Casey in the Supreme Court yesterday on 10 charges of theft and burglary involving goods worth $12,500, and one each of cultivating cannabis and unlawfully taking a car. The youth, Richard Graham Morgan, aged 20, unemployed. pleaded guilty to the charges on arraignment in the Supreme Court. Evidence was given at the! taking of depositions that a large amount of stolen pro-1 perty was discovered when; the police searched a house: at. Waikuku Beach. The, goods included household | items, a colour television set,; two cars and parts taken ( from motor vehicles. When arrested Morgan hadj a knife in his possession! which he told a detective he; was going to use if any police dogs came after him. Mr I. J. D. Hall, for Morgan, said that the prisoner’ had been convicted of an ap-( palling number of offences; since the age of 14 and he[ had spent much of that time: jn institutions ranging from!

Borstal to Paremoremo Prison. ■ By pleading guilty to these offences he had saved the expense of a trial. Morgan had a most unfortunate background. Since the age of seven he had been in some form of supervision or custody which began when he was’ taken in charge by the Social Welfare Department. As so often happened with: the product of a broken I home Morgan drifted into ■ crime. [ After his last release from j prison he worked in Auck- , land for three months and ilhen his co-offender wrote land asked him to return to (Christchurch. Out of work (and with no money he soon (resorted to serious crime. j It was obvious that Mor;gan had to go to prison for (some time but he was now 120 and another long sentence I would mean that he had been (imprisoned from 1973 to the; 11980 s. { At Paremoremo Morgan I 'had attempted to better him- ( (self and had passed a theo-1 ( retical examination to qualify ; [as a watchmaker. But since; ; his release he had been un-( I able to obtain a job in that I

| trade, because, he said, of (his criminal record. ■ I The danger of Morgan be--Icoming institutionalised was Every real and his chances of ■[rehabilitation were rapidly f diminishing although it had ! to be accepted that the puh- ■ lie had to be protected, Mr > Hall said. His Honour said that Mr Hall had ably said all'that I could be said on Morgan’s (behalf. He would take into account Morgan’s sense of responsibility in pleading guilty and his assistance to the police. “At the age of 20 you have a frightful list of previous convictions and you know a lengthy term is the only way I can deal with you. Everything else has been tried and it is hard to see any future for you outside prison, the way you are going,” said his Honour. The community had to be i protected and what pre- ; vented him from imposing | the kind of sentence that ( burglaries of this kind war- ( ranted was Morgan’s age. He (did not want to put Morgan (away for so long that he lost i all hope of settling down, his '■Honour said.