RECORDER CENSURES MAGISTRATES IN U.K.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18381, 6 February 1928, Page 8

RECORDER CENSURES MAGISTRATES IN U.K.

LONDON, December 9. “ I am determined that, so far as lies in my power, I will prevent magistrates from creating criminals,” declared Sir Walter Greaves Lord, the Manchester Recorder, yesterday. When a 19-year-old motor driver, who had been sent to prison for two months, was now charged with stealing cigarettes, Sir Walter observed: — “ The Bolton magistrates seem to want to create a criminal in this case, and I am not going to give them the chance if I can prevent it.” He ordered the youth to be sent to Borstal for three years. In another case it was mentioned that Henry Francis- Grundy, aged 18, had been previously sentenced to two months’ imprisonment at Wolverhampton and 14 days at Manchester. The Recorder said: What the Wolverhampton magistrates were thinking about I do not know. To send a young man of 18 to prison for two months or any length of time is not only a stupid, but a very wrong proceeding, and is quite contrary to all the suggestions that axe made by those who have anything to do with the administration of the criminal law. Equally, I do not like the sentence of 14 days passed in Manchester, and I am not going to allow the Manchester magistrates to escape when they make a mistake of this kind. Probation should be tried to its fullest extent, and if that fails there is one course, and one course only, left, and that is to place the offenders where they will be disciplined again. When told that the Glossop magistrates had fined an 18-year-old girl 10s, the Recorder said the magistrates had thought to perpetrate a farce.