TEN YEARS FOR EX-CONSTABLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 August 1932, Page 3

TEN YEARS FOR EX-CONSTABLE

CRIMES WHILE IN THE FORCE.

LONDON, July 2.

Sentence of ten years’ penal seryiture for being in possession of a loaded revolver was passed at Swansea Assizes yesterday, on John Martyn Regan, 27, formerly a police-constable in the Cardiff City force.

For misdemeanours he was sentenced to two years’ hard labour, the sentences to run concurrently. One of the charges against Regan was that he attempted at Cardiff <o steal from William Nicholas George £1,079, the moneys of the Great Western Railway Company. Evidence was given that, while disguised, he arrived at the offices of the company in a car. He was arrested after a struggle. Mr Justice Talbot, passing sentence, said that Regan knew perfectly the risk he was running and the very serious punishment he would get if he were caught. The offence was a serious one, especially so because he was a police officer of seven years’ standing. It was absolutely essential for the safety of every State and every country that the police force should be trusted, and Regan was one of those whose duty it was to protect the public from crime. Instead of that he became a criminal hipiself, and, not only so, he had attempted to cause criminal conduct in others. “You have been convicted of felony,” added the judge, “and six misdemeanours, • five of them arising out of the same act. I shall not be doing my duty if I do not pass a severe sentence upon you. It is the very •thing- in which there must be exemplary punishment.” After the jury had returned thenverdict the Chief Constable said that Regan was a native of Cardiff, unmarried, and of respectable parentage. “Until he was dismissed from the police force,” added Mr Wilson, T had no reason to suspect that he was guilty of misconduct, but since this case diligent inquiries have; bjeen made, and I have no doubt that during the whole of his service he wa.s .committing crimes of shop and office breaking. He had also attempted to get a colleague to break into an office while on night duty. “Regan is ho fool. He is full witted and in possession of acute faculties. He is a determined and strong-minded man.”