LOQUACIOUS CRIMINALS

Evening Star, Issue 18138, 30 November 1922, Page 11

LOQUACIOUS CRIMINALS

LANDED IN AUSTRALIA WITH.' A HALFPENNY, PRISONER WITH NEW ZEALAND RECORD. Two M-rangdv-couU'astcd prisoners stood before Mr Justice Mann, Mr Justice M‘Arthur, and Mr Justice Macuarian in the State Full Court, sitting as » court of criminal appeal, yesterday, and pleaded for mercy (say's the Melbourne Age oi recent date). Griffin,, whom Judge ’Woimuski sentenced at the Inst general sessions to two years’ imprisonment and (ifteen lashes of the cat-o’-ninc-tails, tried the patience ot the court sorely. His unbridled loquacity, which assisted to convict him before the jury—he addressed the jury or neatly two hours-—was again in evidence, and the greater part of the morning he harangued the learned judges on what constituted the law "of evidence, and how utterly wrong it was for the jury to have given weight to the evidence of two little girls, who swore that ho (Griffin) came hawking to the door, and took advantage of the mother’s absence to assault a child of tender years. The court had finally to bid the accused to hold his tongue; but even when he hue been rebuked Griffin row irrepressibly to the occasion and pleaded for another chance to lodge an appeal against the infliction, of the cat-o’-nine-tails. The court, patient to the last, ordered that the whipping should not he inflicted before next month s sitting of the Full Court; meantime Griffin could make application for extension of time in which to appeal against the sentence.

Quito a different cliaraclor _ was George Cooko, a criminal with an international record for housebreaking. He was no orator. Ho slipped oft the handcuffs which the warders unlocked outside the door, and.entered the court looking deeply dejected. He gave the learned judges a peep into his life’s hi dory, winding up with a pathetic account of his entrance into' Australia, a etranger in a strange land, friendless, homeless, penniless. “ I only want to get away from this country,” he said. ‘‘l want to go back to England and follow the' sea on the coastal trade. I have no trade, and it has handicapped mo all my life. Aly English record was mostly for stealing foodstuffs. Times were hard whoa I was a youngster, and 1 stole to get food. (He got three years when seventeen years of age.) I have no excuse for what I did in. New Zealand (he got five yeaa-s there for thirty-four charges of house breaking); I only got my deserts. But I came to Auttralia with the best intentions.' I had three shillings and a halfpenny when I left New Zealand. I spent the throe shillings on the boat. I knew nothing about Australia. I couldn’t got work. The bureaus were all crowded. When 1 oamo to Melbourne I wandered around like a, lost sheep. T knew nobody, and nobody knew me. I. hadn’t a. friend. I worked for my food alone in one hotel Then, when I was out of work and hungry, old temptation came over me. I pleaded' guilty. I didn’t put the country to any expense. I got six years. Jt will bo a'disastrous sentence for me." Air Justice Mann : Why disastrous ? Cooke : Because I am thirty-four years old now, and I have been, trying hard to go straight. I’m—Urn —— Here Conko broke down, and covered his face with his hands. Beoovoring, he said, in a broken voice, that he was no criminal by instinct. Give him a steady job—that had thcen his lacking and trouble all his life—and ho would go"straight enough. He never stole while he could work. Give him a job at £2 10s a week, or even 30s, ?md the court would never hoar of him again. If he did—well, then he would say: “Keep me in gaol for the rest' of my lile. ’ “I am sick of it all—sick of the life,” Etoaaad Oaoka. "U X coohi only. £et a

chance—ft' chance ■with a steady ]°b that would enable a man io live. I flTn *6®?“ worker. I don’t stand. looking _at the ..clock. .1. never committed A • what I regretted it afterwards. Tho judges conferred for a long time, and then Mr Justice Mann remarked.that it had taken .Cooke fifteen years (o reach his present attitude-upon. ’us crimes. Tho court could not, in view of Cooke s record, hold that tho science of. six years was excessive. • . . Oooko loft tho court, dropped into the prisoners’ seat in the porch outside, and liid his face in his hands. Tears streamed down his face. Court officials wove deeply affected. There was much discussion about the case afterwards. _ ( It was learned later that Cook© s cose will probably be carried further, and that tho honor system may be applied to ms case; that is to say, provided some philanthropist steps forward and off-el's the Crown Law Department a job for Cooke. Cooke’s sincerity for reformation may bo tested. Should' any prisoner .released m such circumstances fail, he returns to gaol to do his sentence,, plus any additional sentence that may bo inflicted for any fresh crime.