PENALTY FOR ESCAPE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 10

PENALTY FOR ESCAPE

WILSON SENTENCED

FURTHER YEAR IN GAOL

(By Telegraph— I'l-ess ■ Association.i

AUCKLAND, This Day

"Stating that the accused seemed to fee a dangerous habitual criminal and that since his escape he had committed further crimes, Mr. Justice Fair this morning sentenced Thomas William Wilson, aged 33, to twelve months' imprisonment to be served at the expiration of the five years which he was serving when he escaped from custody af Auckland in December, 1931. Wilson was arrested on the Mariposa recently, when returning to Australia after deportation from America.

; Appearing for the accused, Mr. Noble asked that he be allowed to go to Australia.,

His Honour: That in effect is a request that I should release him from serving the balance of the five years' Bentence.

Mr. Noble: It may be that this is a contest between what is right and what is expedient. .'

His Honour said that correspondence between Wilson when in America and the New Zealand authorities, as quoted by counsel, .merely conveyed the fact that Wilson would not be permitted to return to New Zealand, and that if he did he would be arrested and have to complete the balance of the sentence. The plea made by counsel might perhaps be addressed to some other body at a later date. The only fact in his favour was that there was no form of violence in his escape.