A PEEPING TOM

NZ Truth, Issue 685, 27 July 1918, Page 5

A PEEPING TOM

♦ , Payne and His Pranks A Wei I -deserved Three Months' Gaol. A member of the despicable "Peeping Tom" fraternity was unearthed at Devonport recently m the person of Thomas Joseph Payne, a chap of about thirty years of age, and on Thursday of last week he was brought before Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., charged that *oh June 13 he was found without lawful excuse on the premises of John Rowe, Devonport. Accused pleaded guilty. Senior-Sergeant McNamara stated that Payne was what is known as a "Peeping Tom," and had been making himself a perfect nuisance. He was a fireman employed on the steamer Wakatere, and when on shore had made it a practice at Devonport to take up a position on people's premises and wherever possible peep through windows into rooms where ladies would be disrobing preparatory to retiring for the night. On several occasions hs had been observed, and the last time he was caught standing near a verandah post adjacent to a room where a lady was disrobing. He had also "foxed" couples on the beach, climbed fences m order to peep through windows, and had amused himself admiring the ladies m the tea kiosk at Cheltenham Beach. On the evening of June 13, after being spoken to for creeping' up close, with the object of listening to a couple on the beach, Payne was later on caught peeping m a bedroom window of Mr. Lowe's house. „ .The_ r , senior-ser,geant ' added that Payne seemed to have a mania' for this "sort' of thing, and.had previously: beenr •sen'te'ncecT to- siScm'onths' imprisonment for-in decent: exposure-.)/ rjc-ii* .<-i .-;.':?.-?! ■':>'■ Accused said he had' had ■ -a; drop too '•much 'of" drink,- and this was the /cause. - of ;f th'e trouble, -,hut,d£>;frive.ni alliance.. f foe' l would jtryrand^ get a-ivayorHaiiraopr 'Shlp7'-'-He: wasfa stagle:<rrianr&rf.! -n *•/.<■■ -Magistrate Mosley said that "unless Payne controlled himself he- would popsib'ly end up m a mental hospital, Jt was hard to know what to do wlth'suoh a man. who needed protection apalnst himself. "You know you are liable to 'twelve months' Imprisonment, and I will .sentence you to three months' imprisonment with hard labor," concluded his Worship.