“VICIOUS OFFENCE”

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1935, Page 14

“VICIOUS OFFENCE”

HARD LABOUR FOR BLACKMAIL SENTENCE IMPOSED AT AUCKLAND. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, February 15. Sentence of three years’ labour was passed by Mr. Justice Fair to-day on Alfred McDowell, labourer, who was found guilty of blackmailing an Auckland professional man. Counsel for the prisoner said that the complainant had admitted he had been influenced in continuing his payments to the prisoner by a desire to retrieve the money previously paid. The judge said that McDowell had been found guilty on ten counts. In respect of three of them he was liable to life imprisonment. Blackmail was a peculiarly vicious and cruel offence. Once the victim had made a payment and committed himself in one way he found himself exposed to a series of threats which exposed him to torture and might ruin his character. It might be that a man of strong character would make a stand from the beginning, but it so happened that the victim might not care to expose himself to having his character blackened. However, he might clear himself.

It was hard in this case to find a redeeming feature. McDowell was comparatively young and there was no evidence that he was under pressure or in serious want, and the money he secured he had wasted.