TWENTY YEARS OF HELL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20108, 29 March 1928, Page 7

TWENTY YEARS OF HELL

OSCAR SLATER S CASE Liberated Man’s First Statement -Since Release SERVED SIXTEEN YEARS. Tfalcgrapti— Per A.md.— V (A. & N.Z.) LONDON, March 27. Oscar {Slater’s first statement since his liberation in November is published in the Daily Express. He declares: “Twenty years ago I voluntarily, of my own free will ,i,uld the American Court that 1 waiveu all formalities and would be safe in my faith in British justice. “Of my own nee will and against all adive, 1 offered myself to British law to be tried for murder. 1 did not commit my conscience, wlum was clear.

“1 had faith, but some force known or unknown crushed me; dazed and bewildered, 1 staggered into 20 years of hell. Now again, voluntarily and of my own free will, 1 surrender my cause to personal British justice, in which 1 trust and believe wii.fi al; my being. This time truth and faith must conquer.

“For 16 years in Peterhead prison I was silent. Under the silence imposed by prison law, but the darkness of captivity, and by the agony of tortures of mind, I almost forgot how to speak, but held on to my brain. Now that I can speak 1 recognise that it will be hard to establish the truth.”