TERM IN GAOL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 254, 23 September 1933, Page 12

TERM IN GAOL.

CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION. WELLINGTON, Sept. 22. An echo of a trial which took place in the Supreme Court. Wellington, on August 3 was heard in the House today. when a petition was presented on behalf of Phillip Gordon Brazier, in which he sought redress for time spent in gaol since his conviction on charges of breaking and entering and theft and subsequent acquittal by a jury at the second trial. Petitioner stated that on May 5 last he was tried at the Supreme Court, Wellington, upon charges of breaking and entering and theft at Dannevirke. He pleaded not guilty, but was convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. On May 22 ho appealed against his sentence on the ground that he could bring* evidence not called at the trial to show that he did not leave AVellington on the night of the alleged offence. A new trial took place on August 3, the jury returning a verdict of not guilty on all counts, “the presiding Judge having virtually directed the jury to return such verdict.” From May 5 to August 4 he was imprisoned at Mount Crawford gaol. He contended that he was innocent of any complicity whatever in the alleged offence, and that he had suffered mental strain, loss of freedom, and “injury to reputation necessarily incident to conviction and imprisonment upon serious criminal charges.”