“LIFER” SON NOW FREE TO SEE DYING MOTHER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17890, 5 July 1926, Page 5

“LIFER” SON NOW FREE TO SEE DYING MOTHER.

PATHETIC APPEAL ENDS IN TRIP TO ENGLAND. (Special to the “Star.”) MELBOURNE, June 25. The story of how a prisoner serving a life sentence in Goulburn Gaol was released so that he might return to his aged mother, who was dying in England, is told to-day for the first time. Frederick Crook, then twepty-two years of age, was sentenced to death in 1909, on a charge of having feloniously wounded Russell Sinclair, at his home in North Sydney, with intent to murder. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. Released, Crook is now in England. The prisoner's case was brought under the notice of the Minister for Justice, Mr M’Kell, when the latter was visiting Goulburn Gaol recently. A pathetic letter was received from Crook, in which he pointed out that his mother, aged seventy-nine years, was dying in England. The prisoner said he did not expect to see her again unless the clemency of the Minister permitted him to leave the prison and return to England. “My period in gaol,” wrote Crook, “ has made an entirely different man of me.” CLERGYMAN’S OFFER. The request was strengthened by the offer of a certain minister of religion, who said he was not only prepared to take ■ the prisoner into his own family and care for him, in the event of his release, but also to arrange his passage to England. The Minister carefully investigated the case, and released Crook last April. He was i#luenced in his decision not only by reports he had received with regard to the prisoner’s conduct during his seventeen years in gaol, but also z»y the recommendation of the jury at his trial, that mercy should be used in the infliction of his sentence. of the crime were that Crook entered a house in North Sydney, and when Sinclair grappled with him. Crook fired two or three shots, which hit Sinclair. Crook escaped, but was arrested. The constable who effected the capture did so in very brave circumstances.

Crook is now in England. He has promised not to return to Australia.