GAOL FOR 35 YEARS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 643, 22 December 1932, Page 5

GAOL FOR 35 YEARS.

Punishment for Fiendish Crime. VICTIM TOTALLY BLIND. (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, December 16. The tragic affair popularly known as the William Street hold-up ” reached | its legal conclusion to-day. Three months ago two officials leaving the William Street post office for the bank with several hundred pounds' in their custody were assaulted by some men who threw* ammonia in their faces and got away with over £SOO. An arrest I t olio wed, and in the house where the | suspect was captured money still in the ! bank wrapping was seized.' This money | was later identified at the bank, and ■ the man in w r hose possession it had been found was charged with robbery : and also with the infliction of “ grievous bodily harm.” The case created a local sensation, and the intensity of public feeling was j heightened when it became known that < the unfortunate official who received the full force of the corrosive fluid in , his face had been blinded for life. When the prisoner, Paul Grierson, a ; man of thirty-two with a long police record, appeared in Court, the Crown Prosecutor declared that, if guiltv, he < had committed a crime worse than mu yfl er ; for he had doomed his victim to “ a living death.” Grierson, w’ho dis- ' played extraordinary* self-possession and coolness, defended himself skilfully . and endeavoured to prove an alibi; and a mistake apparently made by a police- ; man in recording the time at which a motor-car was parked appeared likely to assist the prisoner. But the identi- ■ fication of money found in Grierson’s ; house was a strong point against him: < though he attempted to get over this ; by asserting that the money had been < handed to him lor safe keeping by a desperate and dangerous man whom he : believed to be a counterfeiter, but whose name he could not disclose for fear of gang vengeance.

Sentence was deferred to the next day, but before the case closed the police report had made it certain that the punishment would be heavy. Grierson has had four aliases, and a big list of convictions since 1916. ‘‘ He is,” said Detective Walker, “ one of the most cunning, clever, callous and dangerous criminals in the whole of New South Wales. 'He is feared by his criminal companions and is looked on as a master mind among criminals. He is a reputed gunman, and I have no hesitation in saying that he would take life if he thought his identity would not be established.” A List of Business Men. Curiously enough, when Grierson was arrested—in company with “ a notorious female criminal,” who shared the Rose Bay house with him—the police found on him a number of highly incriminating documents; and Detective Walker produced in Court photographs of lists of names of bank managers and other business men, with details of the personnel of their homes—one business man being specially noted as “ living alone.” There were also formulae for the making of explosives and directions for the manufacture of Vale keys—such an equipment as only a professional criminal could require. All these things were taken into account by Judge Thomson, who to-day imposed a penalty which, if there is any preventive power in punishment should act as a deterrent to evil-doers of this type for a long time to come. Grierson was sentenced to thirty-five years’ penal servitude—and in view of the heinousness and the fiendish cruelty of the crime the Judge expressed regret that the law did not permit him to order floggings as well. Grierson received his sentence stoically enough, but he admitted afterwards that he was staggered at its severity—he had expected fifteen years at most, with possibly a flogging as well. As it is, even if he receives the ordinary remission for good conduct in gaol, he will be at least sixtv-one years old by the time that he is released: and, terrible as such a prospect may be, it is some consolation to know that the community will be protected at least against this cruel and desperate ruffian for many years to come.