BLACKMAIL CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22721, 6 November 1935, Page 10

BLACKMAIL CASE

CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THREE ACCUSED SENTENCED (Pes United Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 5. "A crime .of this kind is a blackguardly one, and may inflict much greater suffering on the victim than the person committing it contemplates," said Mr Justice Fair in sentencing Peggy Jackson, Mima Elizabeth Armstrong, Reginald Merton Semb, and Matthew Edward Daubney for conspiracy to defraud of £75 a man whose nam a was suppressed. The sentencing of Semb was deferred owing to counsel having applied to be heard on a motion for retrial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight' of the, evidence. Jackson had resisted temptation to join the blackmail conspiracy for some time, said his Honor, and she was convicted and fined £SO and ordered to pay part of the costs of prosecution and come up for sentence if called on in, 12 months. She was also ordered* to return £ls to the person from whom it came. Armstrong, in joining the conspiracy, had acted more on impulse, and was fined £2O and ordered to pay part costs, the money received by her to *■ be restored.

Referring to Daubney, his Honor said this was a class of crime- that must be stamped out, adding: '"Always during my term it will be the subject of a substantial term of imprisonment." He recognised the youth of the prisoner, and the fact that he was a good worker. He was sentenced to 12 months, with hard labour, and ordered to restore the £2B found in his possession.