PLEA FOR LAST CHANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

PLEA FOR LAST CHANCE

DRAMATIC SPEECH FROM DOCK ' UNIVERSITY MAN'S FALL ! STORY OF CAREER OF CRIME ! Educated at Oxford University, and at one time assistant master at a grammar school in London, a clergyman's son, who pleaded guilty at Liverpool a few weeks ago to forgery and to obtaining a motorcar by false pretences, niado a dramatic appeal to Mr. Justice Hawke for a last chance to go straight." In tho dock stood Edward Christopher Wade, aged 32, described as a clerk, of no fixed address. He asked for eight other cases of obtaining money by means of worthless cheques to bo taken into consideration, and was sentcncod to 18 months' imprisonment. Counsel for the prosecution, explained that by means of " dud " cheques Wade obtained a motor-car worth £7O and £l4 15s 6d from a Liverpool solicitor. A detective stated that Wado belonged to a most respectable family. Wade served in the Army during the War, and on demobilisation returned to Oxford University. From 1921 to 1924 he was in business on his own account, and from 1924 to 1927 ho was employed as clerk at motor works at Coventry. He then went to Germany, where he obtained work as an accountant, and when he returned to Britain in 1928 he became a teacher of languages, and, later on, assistant master at a grammar school in London. Series of Offences While occupying the last mentioned post Wade obtained £5 by false pretences from tho headmaster and absconded. He was not arrested untii June of last year, and at Enfield Petty Sessions he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour, the Bench taking into consideration ■ two thefts of motor-cars at Coventry and Armagh. Tho inspector added that the eight additional offences Wado now asked the judge to take into consideration wore committed at York, Hull, Manchester and Todmorden, and all related to the passing of worthless cheques. In a speech from the dock Wade, an athletic-looking man, dressed in, a faded grey suit, made a pathetic appeal for leniency. " Until the time I became an assistant master in London I was a respectable .and useful member of society." he said, speaking in a cultured tone. " At that time my wife was working for a divorce in order to marry someone else, and my child, who was in tho custody of my parents, was taken away by means of a trick. " ] was heavily in debt at tho time, and, to add to my misfortune, I was severely injured in a motor-car accident, which necessitated my absence from duty for months. It was in these circumstances and while actually under medical treatment for injuries to the head, that I committed the offence referred to and absconded to the Continent." " Starving in the Streets " " When I returned to this country and was arrested and charged at Enfield I was brought beforo a Bench of magistrates some of whom were actually my employers at the 6chool and who, morally, if not legally, owed me a far larger sum than that mentioned in the charge. "My counsel told the court that if they would bind me over as a first offender work would be found for me, and that I had given my word of honour to go straight. Instead of binding me over, the court thought otherwise, and sentenced me to six months' hard labour." Wade went on to say that while in gaol the Board of Education disqualified him from holding a teaching certificate, and three months after he had come out he was starving in the streets of London. " I went to Rowton Houses, and crypt of St. Martin's-in-the-Field, and other places for such men," he added, " and decided that I would live somehow. And so I started on the career of which the detective has spoken." Final Plea for Leniency Following a pause, Wade went on to say that it was the intention of his father, a clergyman, who was very old, to have come to court on his behalf. " But he is not here," Wade continued. " He is too ill; too old. Ho was willing to take me home and give me a further chance, and he is the person most injured by what I have dono. " I have already been subjected to every humiliation that breaking the law can bring a man. This court cannot punish me any further, whatever it does, but it can take away possibly the last chance I shall ever have to go straight." In passing sentence Mr. Justice Ilawke expressed the hope that Wade would make a big effort when he came out of gaol to rehabilitate himself. " There is still a possibility of hope in your case," the judgo concluded.