MUST NOT RETURN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 956, 28 December 1933, Page 5

MUST NOT RETURN.

— Released Prisoner Leaves Australia. LIFE SENTENCE COMMUTED. “ Scotty ” M'Cali, able seaman, and ; | centra! figure in one of Australia's | best-known cirminai trials. left the | Commonwealth recently as a passenger j on the French liner Eridan. never to j For twenty-four hours M’Cal! fidgeted \ in his cabin while the liner was de- ; laved, believing that a hitch had ocj curred in the deportation arrange- ! ments, but finally he got away—a free I man, so long as he keeps away from S Australia “This is purgatory!” he ! said to a seaman who worked with him ! “1° wiH I seTtlfe j j Heads behind me.” | M’Cal] served thirteen years in gaol I for shooting, with intent to murder. ; William Albert Dettmann, a Rose Bay ! builder, in 1919 For year? he was ! regarded as a dangerous prisoner. Warj aer? did not enter his cell alone. He j led prison riots, and was considered ‘ incorrigible. \ About eighteen months age M’Cal! j*was allowed to make friends with a child of eight, and from that day he j reformed. Before he left Australia he j said he would never see the inside of ! a prison again. Efforts by Old Mates, j M’Cali owes his freedom to a numJ ber of old shipmates and members of \ the Seamen’s Union, who heard a whis- . per that it might be possible to get his | release. They deputed Mr Jacob John- , son, their secretaraj’, to carry out the I negotiations. Four months ago they j learned that release could be arranged | on condition that M’Cali left Australia | for ever, and that he sailed on a ship j that did not touch an Australian port, j The trial and conviction of M’Cali provided a remarkable case. Mr Dett- ] mann was awakened by a blow on the i

| head. He jumped out of bed and grap- ; pled with the burglar, but he was : j caught by the throat. His wife tried ; 1 to switch on the light, but only sue- } j ceeded in flashing it for an instant. Mr j Dettmann had only this brief glimpse | j of a man with a police baton tied to j ; his wrist. j “Let me go and I’ll get!” the in- ) truder said in what Mr Dettmann later j • described as a cross between broad j 11 Scots and American accent. He was j : ■ then shot in the abdemen and was in ; . j a critical condition for months. J Death Sentence and Reprieve. :• j In 1920. at a line-up at the police; ; station Mr Dettmann, stiff sick, was ; I i unable positively to identify a man. 1 ‘ I but he took a note of the name and ; ' j watched the newspapers. . Later he !■ •jot malicious wounding He sat in! : J Court, heard M'Cali address the jury. ; . ; and identified him by his voice. M’Cali , j was sentenced to death, this being iater ! j commuted to imprisonment for life. j ! | Before he sailed on the Eridan M'Cal] • -jsaid: “I served all that time cold.”! H He claimed that he did not “do the! ; Dettmann job.’’ and gave that as an ex- • prisoner Now a man of fifty-one years j ’| of age. he dee? not look his age He j 5 ] diticn " ! ■ j The sailor who interviewed M'Cali j i S said that he looked for some trace of I I the “ hard case ” in M’Cali. “ There does ' not seem to be a trace of vice in him i , now, and I'll bet he never gets into j [ gaol again.” he said. M'Cali will gc to