BLACKMAIL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20540, 15 February 1935, Page 7

BLACKMAIL.

■pan Sentenced to r Three Years. A CRUEL OFFENCE. “ HARD TO FIND REDEEMING FEATURE.” Per Press Association. AUCKLAND. This Day. A sentence of three years* hard labour was passed by Mr Justice Fair today on Alfred M ’Dowell, a labourer, who was found guilty of blackmailing an Auckland professional man. Counsel for the prisoner said the complainant had admitted that he had been influenced in continuing his payments to the prisoner by a desire to retrieve money previously paid. The Judge said that M’Dowell had been found guilty on ten counts. In respect of three of them he was liable to life imprisonment. Blackmail was a peculiarly vicious and cruel offence. Once a victim had made a payment and committed himself in one way, he found himself exposed to a series of threats which exposed him to torture and might ruin his character. . It might be that a man of strong character would make a stand from the beginning, but it so happened that the victim might not care to expose himself to having his character blackened, however he might clear himself. It was hard in this case to find a redeeming feature. The prisoner was comparatively young. There was no evidence that he was under pressure or in serious want, and the money he had secured he had wasted. (Other reference to the case appears on Page IS.)