THE LYTTELTON HELL

NZ Truth, Issue 149, 25 April 1908, Page 5

THE LYTTELTON HELL

A REVOfcTINIi STATE OF APFAIRS^

The Commisision of Nameless Crimes. ,< t

' ' '■■' , ' \ A Challenge to Gaoler Cleary.

The presence of revolting sexual abuse among the prisoners m Lyttelton Gaol is becoming a^by T word, and the exact reason why the . authorities do not undertake a sweeping inquiry would be of considerable interest 'to everybody if it were made public. 'A conspiracy of silence on the subject exists amongst the gaol officials themselves, and Barney Cleary grows purple m the face m his endeavors to conceal , the fact of the horrible practices. If this is not so, "Truth" desires to know why complaints by clean-living prisoners, should be disregarded, and the complaining persons punished for .their temerity m giving information concerning sundry bestialities. A nigger m the Inferno serving the term of his natural life for a horrible offence, and whom Judge Denniston regretted he couldn't ' hang" for his crime", lias a roving commission amongst Ahe young 'fellows (principally industrial school boys) m? the t degraded institution/ 1 a"nd i| 'ia youth knows ;;. nothing . about horrifying sexual offences when he goes ; iv. his education is considerably enlarged by the time he gets out. The- disgusting son of. Ham, chums up to the" new' arrivals, slobbers all over, them, and with a bribe of tobacco initiates .them into the mysteries which are one of the penalties of our brutal industrial school and gaol systems. "Truth's" informant has himself seen . .the nigger indecently assault a youth named H -, m cell No.. 36 on the top landing ol the south wing. The victim, H-^— — , ; preferred charges against the nigger and tw« other men, 0 — ■ — -

and R ~, but withdrew the charge against the all black/ under intimidation, although the revolting lump of charcoal publicly boasted of what he had done to the lad. 0 — — and R — — . \vere remanded for a week, then for another week; ' then 'the' authorities sat down firmly and forgot about .it all. Another youth named L- — - cbmplained to Cleary that the saijie.Oh-T — had made improper proposals to| him,' the -eward being as much toba'tco bs - .the young man wanted •

AND PLENTY OF ; FRUIT V when it ripened. 0- —^— was looking after Barney Cleary's fruit garden,/ .• and icted as a spying pimp .amongst, fthe : other prisoners. This aspersion "oil, the character rof his pet prisoned 'angered Cleary, who he promptly asseverated . "Itfs a lie !" Further, .the , ignorant gaoler said the young man was put * up to make the accusation hy the prisoners B— — and M , and L- •. was warned not to let Cleary hear any more of that sort of thing. L— r- — -was firm,however, and mentioned the matter, and chief screw Nicholson,, who promised to see about it, and the- officials thought; hard on the subject for three weeks before they were driven by L- ,'s repeated complaints to bring the matter before two Justices. Then Cleary got up and expressed his brazen and prejudiced opinion that 0 .do such a thing, despite the fact that 6— — at that moment was serving six years for ah unnatural offence. The submissive J's.P- then dismissed the complaint, and the outcome,, of the inquiry was that the' informant L— — •. lost the whole of his probationary, marks— that is to say, , instead of serving 18 months and 23 days, he will- have to remain- m the hell, a butt of Cleary's displeasure, for two 1 solid years. sThey don't want any investigation of these unpleasant matters at Cleary's hell, and publicity, is discouraged. For instance, a- pris^er named W — t— charged the repulsive nigger aforesaid with : committing an unnatural offence m the bath-house,, but the sootcolored Oscar was carefully remanded till the followine; Saturday, when W— : — -was discharged from gaol and couldn't appear to substantiate the complaint against the cullud pusson. Unfortunately, there are plenty of willing victims m the Inferno, and . -"..;,-,.

THESE HAVE FANCY MONIKERS like "Rosebud," "Ruby," "Queeny," "Violet," < and the like. . "Rosebud" is at the disposal of all and sundry for an inch of Juno, and has been known to behave blastiferously m the bath-house with five persons man afternoon. It is a howling satire on the holy church, that the gaol choir is mostly compose_d of these sexual beasts. The riigeer is leading soloist, and "Rosebud" lifts high his voice m , "Lead Kindly ; Light." i( Ruby" and "Queeny" also sing the praises of the Maker with religious fervor. There is the case of the prisoner Me — ; — , who pleaded guilty to a revolting offence m Ghristchurch Supreme Court, and was sentenced to ten years m the nick. This brute was put to attend young "S— — , a sufferer from a venereal disease, and used to be locked up with the youth from, fifteen to twenty minutes". ' It was an open secret that S was a degenerate victim of the choir members' lust, and was pnt back from Hanmer m such a. bad state from this cause that he could hardly jwalk: Industrial school boys often feigned sickness and malingered so that they might be visited m their cells and tended by the repulsive brute, Me -,- who was left undisturbed to do' as he pleased with the unhappy victims. A youth named M; -, sentenced' to six months' mb prisonment without labor, was ordered by Judge Chapman to • be kept apart from the other prisoners, but. the filthy Me— : — was delegated to attend the youth, who' was suffering ;

Cleary "Yes, and ' you ' iiiive threatened to expose j it m the' papers when yo,u go out." \,X replied "Yes ; that is the sore spot ;Vthat is what I'm here to-day, for." As a result , of this; inquiry X was put on bread and water for r three days,*, and lost fourteen days' •marks; m other words, .he had another eleven days added to the period of his residence; in the Lyttelton Inferno. It doesn't pay to run up against the funnybone of the beastly, gaoler. With a trumped-up , charge of bestial choir iirac^ tice rung on to him; it was an odds-on chance that X would hold his tongue when he came out, but : he realised that he 'owed a duty to the community, and has had the moral courage to make the above disclosures. Moreover, lie challenges Cleary to come on and disprove ithe charges, if he is able, and be a roan generally. Also, this m^r reiterates its demand for , an^ inquiry ; into the^ horrible charges that hang around the gaol like the deadly coal damp m the Blackballmihe.: '■''■■ ""'■ ■■''■■-\-\ "-..,<•• i*?l ■