DARTMOOR TRIALS

Grey River Argus, 28 April 1932, Page 4

DARTMOOR TRIALS

Twenty-nine Prisoners ONE MAN’S STORY. (Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn). LONDON, April 26. The special Assize convened for the trial of twenty-nine convicts, opened at the village of Princetown, adjoining the prison, before Mr Justice Finlay, who is protected by armed guards. A large dock, with steel bars, has been erected in the Town Hall. Police reinforcements watched for suspicious characters among the spectators. Davis was charged with stabbing Birch on March 11. Birch, in evidence, said that he had been four times assaulted. He denied cruelty and vindictiveness towards the convicts. He occasionally cautioned Davis for noisiness, but had not reported him. Davis, giving evidence, denied threatening to murder Birch. He declared that Birch made life a misery for all the twenty-one of them, “having a go at me because I complained of the rotten tea. I have been < down below’ twenty-one times since I went > to Dartmoor in 1930, and done eighty- | one days on bread and water. e ’ He added: “I once argued with the I Governor, when sentenced to punishment. Three warders later throttled me, and stuck their fingers in my eyes. ’ ’