CRIME OF BLACKMAIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21197, 1 December 1930, Page 16

CRIME OF BLACKMAIL

JUDGE FAVOURS WHIPPING. -Regret was expressed by the Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild, at the Old Bailey recently, that the law did not permit'whip. P' n g for blackmail. He was dealing at the time with the case-of George Frederick Hamilton, '■ aged 45, motor driver, who had- pleaded guilty to demanding with menaces three sums of £2O each from a clergyman, obtaining £1 by false pretences from a woman, and stealing a magneto. It .was stated that the'clergyman held a public office,' the nature of which was not disclosed. Mr Gerald Dodson, who prosecuted, explained that Hamilton gave himself up to the police at Plymouth “for a couple of jobs he had done recently in London,*’ but he had persistently been demanding sums of money from a clergyman,-alleg-ing familiarity between the clergyman and prisoner’s wife. The /clergyman had befriended Mrs Hamilton, who wa« under his supervision, and that- was the only .reason they were brought into relationship at all. In his career of crime Hamilton bad descended to the lowest deptha The clergyman, counsel explained, was , atto a public institution at, which the. wife'of Hamilton discharged certain duties, and in a series of letters accused demanded sums of money from the clergyman in increasing amounts. Detective Sergeant Northcott -said that prisoner’s real name was Tuliett. ■- He was the eon of respectable working class people; and was born at Deptford. There are 15 convictions against, him for larceny, embezzlement, and other offences. On one occasion, bn his'.release from prison, the Salvation Army befriended Mm and employed him'.as an orderly, at one of their shelters, ■ Ultimately Hamilton became acquainted with a religious sect known as the Apostolic Church, in Brixton, where he, became a regular attendant, but defrauded people belonging to the society.. Prisoner was married, but lived apart from his wife./: In addition to the,letters to the clergyman, Hamilton wrote a menacing letter to a titled member /of Parliament threatening to expose him. There was - also another charge against him which Hamilton asked to be taken into consideration, when sentence was passed. The recorder: Has he blackmailed anyone else?—No., ‘ He -has continually blackmailed the clergyman?—Yes; He is a'plausible liar, and has robbed people who befriended him. • , . . • . , In passing sentence the recorder observed Hamilton’s career had been a constant record of dishonesty. If he had contented himself with dishonesty, the judge said he might have yielded to the appeal of his woman counsel. Miss -Phipps, t to give, him a., chance, but the previous offences of which he had'been convicted were-as nothing compared with the foul vile -crime of blackmail. Sir Ernest’s only fegret was that the law did not equip him with sufficient power to give accused an adequate sentence. - “It is a great pity blackmailers cannot be whipped," exclaimed the recorder, who added that prisoner’s particular form of blackmail only enabled him to 'pass h sentence, of five year a’ penal servitude'.' That was. the maximum punishment, -and it give him great satisfaction to pass it upon Hamilton.-