WELL USED TO GAOL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 148, 20 March 1934, Page 9

WELL USED TO GAOL

Man With a Record A plea of guilty was entered by William Lawson, 29, a labourer, when clmrged at the Brisbane Criminal Court last week with having broken into the counting house of Drysdale and Ridgway Prppty., Ltd., Brisbane, on January 16, and stolen a quantity of photographic material; and, on another count, with having broken into the premises of Arthur Hamer and others and stolen £2. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. H. T. O’Driscoll, said the accused in one case had been in company with another man who had got away; but in another case he actually was found on the premises. His Honour: Has lie a record? Mr? d’Driscoll: Yes, a bad record—from 1922, chiefly for breaking and entering and stealing. The accused stated that, since his last conviction, he had been trying to go straight; and, in fact, had been out of gaol six times longer than ever before. His longest period of freedom prior to that bad been three months. He had been arrested on a charge, of an entirely different nature of which he was innocent, and he wanted money to fight the case. The class of crime he usually followed was breaking and entering into private houses. His Honour: That is what you specialise in? The prisoner: Yes, that is my speciality. This is not my line. 1 just weiit along witli another fellow. His Honour: You have a nasty record. have not you? The prisoner: Yes, but. 1 have never been to school, and I have spent all my early life in an orphanage. His Honour: Were not you at school there? The prisoner: No; I was only taught to sign my name. He added that he had spent 25 years out of 30 in Government. institutions —orphanages or gaol. The accused was remanded for sentence.