A YOUTH’S CRIME.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 February 1925, Page 5

A YOUTH’S CRIME.

A ' CALLOUS ACT. ' BOY TO BE BIRCHED. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT LONDON, Feb. 26. Oulagi, a messenger boy, pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Mrs Cragg (the cook at a Hyde Park mansion) and to maliciously setting fire to the house after robbing her with violence. He was sentenced to 21 months ’ imprisonment and twenty strokes of the “cat.” Mr Justice Avery declared that only his youth saved the accused from a long term of penal servitude. Defending counsel suggested that Oulagi had become mentally abnormal. He lived a respectable life till December, since when he had committed four burglaries, all marked by extraordinary and wanton afcts. In one case he left the gas turned on, in another the water, while the most hardened and callous criminal would have hesitated to use violence on Mrs Cragg. Accused’s confession was really a glorification and boasting of his own crimes.

Amazing disclosures were made by the prosecution in the early stages of the hearing of the charges against Oulagi, who was charged with entering a Hyde Park mansion. He made a statement after arrest to the effect that being short, of money he went to the house and found the .mistress out. He struck the cook (Mrs Cragg) on the head with a hammer. She still fought and he tried to pour hydrochloric acid over her, but most of it was spilt on the floor. The fumes were overpowering, so he dragged her out of the hall. Blows ended her resistance, and he then bound her hands and forced her to pilot him through the rooms in search of valuables, after which he gagged her. It dawned on liim that he might later have to bring her a parcel to the house and there might.be. a danger of Mrs Cragg identifying him, so he tied her to a chair, fastened it to a bed, piled up papers around it and set fire to the lot. When he saw the flames had a good hold he locked the door and went home with the booty. Then he returned and watched the police and public gather at the house, from which Mrs Cragg was rescued at the point of suffocation.