DARTMOOR SHEPHERD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1095, 6 April 1911, Page 5

DARTMOOR SHEPHERD.

RE-ARRESTED FOR BURGLARY. MR. CHURCHiLL CHAFFED, By Telegraph-Press Associalwn-Copyridit London, April 1. Much amusement has been caused by tlic arrest of the old man, David Davies, the famous "Dartmoor Shepherd," on a charge of house-breaking at Oswestry, in .Shropshire. Davies first camo inio prominence in November last, when Mr. Lloyd-George, in his Mile End speech, said of him:— "My friend the Home Secretary and 1 the other day paid a visit to Dartmoor. On that bleak, mist-sodden upland I saw an old man of G5 in a convict 'garb who had been sentenced to 13 years' penal servitude because, under the influence of drink, he had broken into a church poorbox and stolen 25." In answer to a question in the House of Commons a few days later, the noma Secretary, Mr. Winston Churchill, said tho case had engaged his attention for more than six months. This was the most serious and severe sentence ever imposed under the system of preventive detention under the new Prevention of Crimes Act. He had advised the use of the prerogative of the Crown to release the old man, who had now served for more than a year, in the course of the next few months. On January 6 last Davies was released from gaol to go to a situation obtained for him near Wrexham. It was stipulated that he could not leave of his own accord under a period of six months without tho permission of the Home Office. Two days after his arrival at the farm Davies disappeared, and the police have sinco been seeching for him. The Opposition press meanwhile discovered that the object of Ministerial compassion was a very old offender indoed, and waxed merry ' at Mr. Churchill's expense. Davies's record was as follows:— 1870—1 month's hard labour; larceny. 1870—S months' hard labour; stealing a gun, 1871—7 years' penal servitude; burglary. 1877—10 years' penal servitude; stealing watch and chain. 1857—15 years' penal servitude; burglary. ' 1599—1 month's hard labour; sacrilege. 1902—5 years' penal servitude; stealing Jil fis. Gd. and p.c. 1907—3 months' hard labour (license revoked;; stealing Bs. Old. 1905—3 months' hard labour (licenso revoked); breach Prevention of Crime Act. In the course of a long explanation in January, Mr. Churchill said: "I am well aware that.those grimly brief records of wretched lives of crimo and suffering do not furnish all the materials necessary for exact comparisons. But when every allowance has been made, I do not belicvo it is possible for any sincere man to resist tho conclusion that David Davies has been treated, both in previous sentences and in his present sentence, with a severity which, if not unparalleled, is certainly exceptional and excessive." On mention being mado in the House of Commons to-day of Davies's latest escapade, Mr. Churchill was ironically cheered by members.

"The following points," says Mr. Churchill, "should be noted upon the- offences of this record. ,The burglaries were not of a daring or professional character, the criminal was not armed, tho amounts stolen wero in all cases very small, tho properly was in most instance's recovered, and there was no crime of cruelty or violence. The convict throughout his lifo had been a nuisance, but not n danger to society." This view, ho adds, is confirmed bv Sir Alfred Wills in his letter to "The Times." Sir Alfred wrote that "in prison Davios was as quiet, docile, and harmless a person ns could be conceived—in fact, a model prisoner in every way—contented and even happy. He was employed as the shepherd of the Dartmoor flock. Ho loved his sheep,, took the utmost care of them, and they loved him. He never drove them, but in a kind nf Scriptural fashion led them forth. They obeyed him, and he had no trouble with them. But he had an incurable mania for theft, generally of a petty order. When released he expected soon to be back again, and his expectations were always satisfied. He never committed any "acts of violence."