SUPREME COURT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2636, 19 October 1909, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

SITTINGS AT' WELLINGTON

TPicit Press Association.'! WELLIN GTON, October 18. At the Supreme Court, His Honor Mr. Justice Cooper, William Willis, who liad pleaded guilty to charges of breaking and entering and theft, admitted .previous convictions mentioned by the Judge. His Honor said it was quite impossible for him to extend leniency to the prisoner. He had to treat the offence as serious. The prisoner had broken into a house by night, and had already taken some small articles from a bedroom whe he was disturbed. It was the kind of case the Court must put down. His Honor passed sentence of three years’ imprisonment. A similar sentence was imposed on Jas. McLean, alias Boyle, for separate offences of theft and forgery and uttering. (Previous convictions were admitted by the prisoner. “You are qualifying for an. habitual criminal, you know,” said the. Judge, addressing the prisoner. “I shall sentence you to three years’ imprisonment for forgery, and one year for theft, the terms to be concurrent. If at the end of that ’time, when you are at liberty once more, you come before me, and are again convicted of crime, I shall declare you an habitual criminal.”