A CONFESSION “SQUEEZED”

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10507, 7 February 1920, Page 6

A CONFESSION “SQUEEZED”

■METHODS OF POLICE. CONDEMNED BT JUDGE. A method adopted by. detectives to secure evidence in' respect )1 a criminal charge was strongly condemned by lllis Honour Sir W. B. Edwards at the igupreme Court yesterday. He said the facts disclosed that when inquiring into the circumstances of an alleged illegal-operation,' a .detective ■ had obI ta'iucd a statement from a witnosn latter the latter had been kept at the detective office for about an hour and a ihalf. The person was not. there of; hor own Volition, but, in reality, undor duress. ' It .was . very important that crime should be detected, but not ini such a fashion, where the person was practically entrapped and a-state-iftlimt “squeezed” out.of her. It was ■absurd to'suppose that the document in question was giveri voluntarily. Ho was not blaming the police officers, who, no doubt, wore conscien'tious, but their views were not ills views, and were not. in accordance' with English practice, because the person who was being questioned had no pro-, ■ tection, as in Scotland. ; In the latter place, people suspected of crime wore interrogated under severe conditions, but they were entitled to refuse tci reply to questions. He, greatly -deprecated that .such a course ' had been 1 i pursued, and to trusted that in future it would. be, unknown...