BREACH OF TRUST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 25

BREACH OF TRUST.

T.M. SLATTERY SENTENCED.

SYDNEY, April 3. T. M. flattery, solicitor, was found guilty of misappropriating £6958, the money of his client, Mrs Scaulon, and recommended to mercy on the ground of his previous unblemished character. Slattery declared that he did not want mercy. He had been too confiding. He was sentenced to three and a-half years' impiisonxnent.

Prior to the summing-up, Slattcry made a lengthy statement. He said he thought lie was justified in upon the letter received froai Mrs Seanlon, whom h& would have trusted with his life, not as between an ordii.ary principal and agent, but as between friends?, that a- settlement could remain over till her return from Europe. Her action in prosecuting him was a mystery of mysteries. If she had given him an honest allowance for five years' service in connection with the estate, neither she nor he would have been present in court.

Slattevy's sentence is one of hard labour. In a dramatic statement, he declared that aft-er holding every position of honour in the State, even if he were put in Darlinghursfc by a, woman who had come from poverty to a position, he Avould not ask for mercy. He despised anything in the shape of it. He h-.id prevented friends, who had raised £5200, paying a. single penny to square the case. H? asked for the full sentence.