GAOL FOR 20 MONTHS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 26 November 1941, Page 7

GAOL FOR 20 MONTHS

ABSENT FOR A YEAR ESCAPE FROM CUSTODY (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A sentence of 20 months’ gaol with hard labour has been imposed on Private Winston Andrew Boag on a, charge of desertion in that he was absent without leave when in arrest in the quarter guard at Trenthnm camp from October 29, 1940, till he surrendered to the civil police at Frankton Junction dressed in civilian clothes on November 6. 1941. He was found guilty on this charge by a district court martial which sat at Trentham on Thursday. The charges, findings and sentence were promulgated at the camp yesterday. Boag was found not guilty on a charge of desertion from the 22nd Battalion 2nd N.Z.E.F., at Trentham on April 7, 1940. In connection with this charge it was disclosed at the proceedings that Boag was absent from camp for 223 days, from April 7, <940, till he was arrested in Auckland while engaged with a construction company and brought back to Trentham. He escaped while in arrest and was absent a year and nine days before he surrendered himself. The charges were heard separately, a verdict of not guilty being returned on the first charge and a verdict of guilty on the second.