ARMED BURGLARS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 8

ARMED BURGLARS

SENTENCED TO THREE MONTHS’ GAOL

William James Mcßain and Henry Stephen Gradwell, the two young men who recently pleaded guilty to a series of burglaries in the city, and are awaiting sentence by the Supreme Court, made another appearance in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning. Mcßain was called upon to answer a charge of carrying a pistol beyond the confines of the house in which he resided, while Gradwell was charged with unlawfully retaining an automatic revolver and with unlawfully being in possession of a quantity of ammunition. Both accused pleaded guilty. Chief Detective Kemp said that there was no excuse for carrying firearms in this country, and that when men who had been arrested for burglary were found with firearms in their possession it could only be assumed thg arms were for one purpose. Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell stated that Gradwell came from South America eighteen months ago. and brought the revolver with him. There was no evidence that he had ever used it. Accused was not aware that it waa against the New Zealand law to possess a firearm.

Chief Detective Kemp: This revolver, which Mr. Treadwell says was innocently brought into the country, was fully loaded when taken by the police. Mt. F. K. Hunt, S.M., said that the practice of carrying firearms would have to be put down. Mcßaig. was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for carrying a firearm, and Gradwell was given a similar term for being in possession of an automatic revolver and ammunition.