MAN’S WILD LIFE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 December 1923, Page 2

MAN’S WILD LIFE

CAREER OF CRIME. An amazing career of crime was unfolded at the Newcastle Quarter Sessions. The accused was Charles Henry Jones (36), a tailor, who was found guilty of stealing a suit case containing a white fox fur and other articles, while in the care of the London and North-Easteirn Railway Company and valued at £B3 6s. The suitcase, which was the property of Miss Evelyn Annie Carmichael, of Marston, Yorkshire, who was travelling by train from Glasgow to her home, was placed in the van of a train on which the prisoner was travelling from Newcastle to York, and was missed by her at Darlington. Prisoner’s story was that the case was given to him by one of three strangers who spoke to him at Newcastle Station. Convictions of three terms of penal fcervitudje te>t Chester, Essex, and London, amounting to twelve years were proved against him, after wh'ch Detective-Sergeant Craven, of the Meropolitan Police, told a remarkable story of prisoner’s escapades. It was in 1903 stated witness, that prisoner first came under the notice of the police, when he was bound over at Chester, his native place, for stealing a. brooch. Since then he appeared to have been continually in prison. In 1921 he was employed as a. butler with Lady Turner, and while in her service he stole a cheque and got 12 months. On two occasions he escaped arrest, once in throwing salt in the eyes of the prison van driver when on remand. In 1922 he was sentenced at Chelmsford, but escaped with four other prisoner's, and was at liberty for about a month. While serving a term of penal servitude received in 1917 he wrote a letter to the King, which was smuggled out of prison, and accused witness and Sergeant Reay of putting marks on the door to get him arrested for burglary. He also requested that he should be released to join the Army. The Army authorities would have nothing to do with him because they considered him a most dangerous man. Mr Muir (for- prisoner)—Can you say nothing good about him ? Witness —I am sorry to say I cannot. He had better opportunities than most honest men have. Called into the witness-box by his counsel, prisoner said he had done his utmost to get work and lead an honest life. When a boy of 13 he was left without father and mother to look after seven brothers and sisters. < “I have been unlucky’ all my life,” he added. “I was born on an unlucky day, and I have never had any luck since I was 13.” Prisoner was found guilty on the charge of being an habitual criminal. Judge Atherly-Jones passed sentence of three years’ penal servitude.