Sinister 'Huck Finn’ jailed

Press, 3 February 1981, Page 4

Sinister 'Huck Finn’ jailed

A sinister Huckelberry Finn character,, who lived in a fantasy world and claimed he, was going to blow up the Cook Strait power cable to get his revenge on society, : was jailed for three vears by ' Mr Justice Casey in the High Court, yesterday. William James Mathieson, ' aged 35, unemployed, had ' pleaded guilty in the Christ- < church. District Court to I three charges of burglary < and one of illegal possession

of. explosives. He was. committed to the High Court for The police. statement said that bn the night, of. October 28, 1980,' the-,Christchurch City. Council office at the Hal swell Quarry was, burgled with., tools from a -mearby work site. Property stolen was valued at $279, and including an electric shot exploder, 50 detonators'and six detonating relay connectors. The next night the explosives magazine at the Alpine Mine; Ten Mile Valley, near Greymouth, was broken into after a chain across a private road was cut. The offenders used bolt cutters to remove .the padlock from the bath house from which they stole keys for the explosives magazine. One and a half cases of explosives, containing about 150 sticks, and 200 electric detonators valued at about $2OO were stolen. On the night of November 7 the shop of the Cromwell Sports Centre was burgled by forcing a door with a pinch bar. Property valued at $lOBO was stolen. It included two .22 semi-auto-matic rifles, 2000 rounds of ammunition, trampers’ packs, clothing; camping equipment and sleeping bags. ' ■ The two stolen rifles and

some’ of the camping equipment were found in Mathiesdn’s hut at Glenorchy. On November 28 when Mathieson was found by the police in a motel" in Fitz>herbert Street, Hukitika, he !had two sticks, cf explosives ahd four electric detonators. He admitted that he had them in his pack -’When he arrived at the motel; ■ The police later recovered 102 electric detonators and 14 sticks of explosives. Interviewed by the police at Grey mouth, Mathieson the three burglaries. ' ~ ', ■_. ■'" • -•?■ "' Mr P. B. McMcnamin, for. Mathieson, said that the prisoner had had a disastrous background which had set him on the path to ruin. His father had been violent and terrorised his mother. The family had broken up a.id Mathieson had been put in. an orphanage, foster homes and eventually in Borstal. Mathieson’s early life had maimed him and he regarded himself as the scapegoat of the family and he. escaped into a world of fantasy and delusion. His claim , that he was. goinj to use the explosives to blow up the Cook Strait power cable because society had not given him a chance demonstrated his state of unreality.'

I With his co-offender, who I was being sought by the .police, Mathieson embarked lon a sinister Huckelberry •Finn plan to.“go bush” and , ! live off the land and wildlife jby using the rifles and explosives. Mathieson realised that his two marriages and ope purported marriage had been ruined by his constant offending and that he had to rehabilitate himself, . Mr McMenamin said. '1 His Honou" said - that* Mathieson was no stranger to the courts. He had a disastrous background and had spent 12 of the last 16 years | in jail for offences of dis-1 honesty and violence. He* had been sentenced to ai seven year term in Austra-i lia. “You have deliberately, chosen to cut yourself off from society and embarked on a'life 6f crime. Your expressed intention to blow up the power, cable between the North and South Island shows something* of iybur unrealistic attitude and of the fantasy world you appear to be living in,” said his Honour; ■■ Mathieson had stolen a large quantity , of explosives and other materials and the Court had to take a serious view ..of the matter, his Honour said.