1961-08-26 — Page 11

"

N

1

by EDGAR LUSTGARTEN

(Continued from Page 6)

"Had you any intention of doing any officer any harm any time?"

"No Craig persists, "I only wanted to frighten them away."

It fa difficult to recall OST- hot a more preposterous statement, even by a prisoner on n capital charge with his back against the wail.

Frighten them away, forscoth -the unarmed police who elani- bered on to that warehouse rout were facing a pair prepared for murder in the most literal sense, Craig's soft voice and mild ex- pression quickly lose their im- pact s prosecutor Humphreys cross-examines on this point.

"You were out to break into these premises and steal what ever you could get?"

"Yen, sir."

"You had a gun with you?"

"Yen, sir."

"It was landed?"

"Yes"

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST.26, 196

No. 1: THE CRAIG &

BENTLEY AFFAIR

Did Bentley deserve his fate? Yes!

"And If you have it on your knuckles, you have this spike as well?"

"Yes"

"A dreadful weapon," Lorri Goddard, grimly,

*50,"

restimes

ray's Humphreys, "you had a loaded revolver; aminunition; a knife;

"And you had extra ainmuni- letting up.

tive in your pocket?"

"Yest

"As a knife?"

"Yes,""

Like

A SPIKE

a pictorial

reinforce-

neal of these anawers, the wea-

pons are there, displayed in court under the guze of ali,

"Bentley was armed with that knuckleduster he says from you. Is that right?

"Yes."

kaledus-

ter. And Bent-

ley also hacf 4

knife?"

"Yes."

"You were both well arm- ed

weren't

you? Didn't you intend to resist

any person who attempted to arrest you?"

wanted to

"No, I only

frighten them."

he got

Craly anys, doggedly.

"When did you give it him?" "That night."

At the judge's order, kkleduster is passed up.

"And you saw other offeers punish the captured wronk- pulling him into cover?"

doer because his accomplice has "Yes, sir."

• managed to escape.

Was it right to imprison a been

life?

one man who should have step- ped forward with, his colleagues; one man who was unable to be there.

everyday bobby 43 0 soldler was a tributo well deserved. without arms-and showed how But there was one man missing; the everyday bobby could rise to the occasion.

"Let Detective Sergeant Fair- fax, P-c MeDonald and P-c

Goddard had said at the clusion of the trial, and then had directly addressed the three men who complied.

"Yes, I knew he had been hoy like Craig virtually for Harrison sland forward," Lord

"So you knew he had

hit?"

sir."

"By you?" "Yes, sit."

NEXT WEEK

The scandal

of

Helen

Adele

I do not pretend to stand Aside from this controversy. I think that the Home Secretary, "And after

Sir David Maxwell Fyte, was that you fired right in refusing Bentley a again?"

1 have confidence in reprieve. "In the air" Lord Goddard's view of Craig "And you and the length of imprisonment fred until the he considered he should serve.

empty?"

"Yes."

ti da

03

As BOGI the convicted criminals had been duly se?i-

CRISIS

But I am not concerned here tenced the with that perennial argument.

younger, pro- I am concerned with what has tected by his always seemed to me the real, age, not to the fundamental significance of death but to the case—a significance usually But his contention sounds indeterminate detention ("efther minimised or overlooked,

Lord the painfully hollow now, and in shall suggest,"

It was not except when arti- Goddard shall be ficially exploited a crisis in the aid, "the time you kept in confinement") there relationship between crime and blew up the twofold controversy punishment. It was, however, around Craig and Bentley that through its intrinsic tature, has not completely died down crisis in the relationship between to this day.

public and police.

What is this spike in it for?"

Lord Goddard asics.

"I just put in," says Craig.

What

is the knuckleduster

for?"

"To put on your hand, sir." "To hit anybody?" "Yes,"

a moment it receives coup de grace.

the

"You saw one of the ofcers foll, didn't you, Craig?"

"Yes, sir."

Was it right to hang Bentley "And he never moved again?" when the law precluded hanging "No, sir."

Craig? As I one should not

MISSING

con-

And it is a curious reflection that, while the on our values murderers endure as household words, the pollesman whom they murdered has been practically forgotten.

The name is Sidney George

"It is no light thing to face a

Miles; and while the aboli- burglar or a housebreaker in the tionists shed tears over Bont dark when he is armed with a revolver and Aring in the way he ley_and_the_penal ` 'reformers

dfd.

**[ doubt not that all your search their consciences over comrades who were there that night would have shown exactly Craig, more sensible citizens the same courage; it so hap- pened that, you were exposed to will pause to honour it the worst of it, and had, there- fore, more opportunities showing courage.

of

"The thanks of all law-abiding citizenssought to be tendered to

you."

a

It dispatched for ever the idea of the police officer as a modern- sed watchman, a twentieth-

century Verges. It established the

COPYRIGHT:

EDGAR LUSTGARDEN, 1961

-(London Express Servier),

BOLEX