NO LENIENCY FOR ARMED ROBBERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 150, 26 June 1931, Page 1

NO LENIENCY FOR ARMED ROBBERS.

N.S.W. JUDGES DECLARE AGAINST CRIMINALS

The Chief Justice of New South Wales, Sir Philip Street, and Mr Justice Ferguson said, in the Full Court of Criminal Appeal recently, that every man who committed robbery under arms was a potential murderer. The Court, which also comprised Mr Justice Halse Rogers, indicated that such offenders against the community could expect no leniency from the Courts. The Chief Justice said that every time leniency was shown encouragement was given to others. Leniency in these cases was misplaced. People who carried firearms with a view to committing crimes, or who associated with people who did, would have to understand that they were doing things that needed to be severely repressed, and would be severely repressed. The Court was considering the appeals of Frank Woods, aged twenty- , two, and Leonard Ernest Richards, aged twenty-one, who were convicted of assault and robbery while being armed. Judge Edwards sentenced Woods to sever years’ and Richards to five years’ penal servitude. According to the report of the trial Judge the appellants went to the shop of a Chinese, bailed up the Chinese at the point of a revolver and, under threats, forced him to go from room to room while they robbed the place. Appeals were lodged on the ground of undue severity.

The Chief Justice said that Woods had a long record. Only last year he was bound over after conviction for breaking, entering and stealing, and it appeared that only a sharp lesson might stop him from developing into a useless member of society. It appeared that Richards had not been convicted before. “In the circumstances,” added his Honor, “ no case has been made out for interfering with the sentences, and I think that the applications should be dismissed.”