BREACH OF PROBATION

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1934, Page 2

BREACH OF PROBATION

NEW PLYMOUTH ARREST OFFENCE OF DUNEDIN YOUTH. DETENTION FOR TWO YEARS. Justin Earl Edward Constable, who discontinued the visits to the Dunedin probation Officer prescribed by the court, was ordered a term of Borstal detention not exceeding two years by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., when he appeared in the New Plymouth Police Court yesterday. The charge was the breach of his probation at Dunedin on April 21. At the request of the chief probation officer, Wellington, he was also charged with the original offence upon which he was admitted to probation, the theft at Dunedin on February 8 of a gold watch and chain and a pair of shoes of a total value of £3 ss. Mr. Woodward said if necessary he would confirm the original sentence. Constable, who was 19 years of age, pleaded guilty. Detective A. B. Meiklejohn said the chief probation officer asked, that Constable be charged under section 14, under which the probation officer could be called to give evidence. Constable had received two years’ probation on the original charge. He had no knowledge of Constable’s character prior to' his coming to New Plymouth, said the New Plymouth probation officer, Mr. W. Dineen. It would appear that the best method would be to deal with the breach of probation charge first and then deal with the original offence. The probation officer at Dunedin had given Constable a bad character. Constable had been unable to produce a license. He had lost it, he said. While held under remand his conduct was exemplary, but that was to be expected of a young fellow who was in gaol for the first time. In reply to the magistrate, Constable said he had not been given a fair trial. The Dunedin probation officer had said that he had found him work, but this was not so. Constable had found the positions himself. Detective Meiklejohn said Constable came from Auckland to New Plymouth and had been associating with a man who had served a term of imprisonment for breaking and entering. They had been together a great deal. He was actually in association with this man when-arrested on October 14. Constable owed money at his boarding ■ house. He was in the habit of sleeping until a late hour in the day. He maintained that he could live on one meal a day. Prior to his arrest constable had travelled to Wanganui in company with the man referred to and one other. There he was interviewed by the police and gave the name of Claude Andrew Bedford. When approached by the New Plymouth police he gave that name, but information from the criminal registration branch at Wellington disclosed his correct name to be Constable. Even from the little knowledge of Constable’s behaviour in New Plymouth it was evident he was lazy, said the detective. / ACCUSATION AGAINST OFFICER. The magistrate: Why did you stop reporting? Constable: I could not get a job and I lost my license. I thought I might get a job on the way up. If it had been known I was staying with my mother she would get a cut in her pension. The magistrate: Why do you think that? Constable replied that his Another had told him that her widow’s pension would be cut. He had been doing whatever odd jobs he could get. He knew that, he had to report every week. Every time he reported to the probation officer he was threatened with Borstal if he did not secure a position, said Constable. The magistrate said he could not be expected to believe the statement. It was, perhaps, no fault of Constable’s that he had no position, but he did not think a probation officer would threaten a man with gaol on that account Constable said he'had been offered one position by the probation officer and he had interviewed the person concerned, and he was given to understand that the officer would be advised when he (Constable) would be required. He had met the man referred to as a burglar in New Plymouth and had worked for him for his meals. He did not then know that this man had been convicted. Together with this man and a Mr. O’Leary, of Melbourne, lie visited Wanganui with the object of conducting a dance. An effort to conduct a dance at the Burwood, New Plymouth, had proved unsuccessful, and nothing eventuated from the Wanganui trip. He had worked on a farm, but not since April, when the breach of probation had occurred. He had since done gardening work. Referring to the breach of probation, Mr. Woodward said the offence was punishable by imprisonment or Borstel detention. He thought the conditions for detention were present. Constable had been given an opportunity to play the game. It was expedient that he should be the subject of detention under instruction and discipline conducive to his reformation. On the breach of probation charge an order was made for the detention of Constable in a Borstal institution for a term not exceeding two years. On the second, the original charge, the magistrate confirmed the original sentence.