§ MR. F. H. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of an ex-convict who, at Lowestoft on Monday last, was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment with hard labour for failing to report himself to the, police; whether he will state who authorised the prosecution; and whether it was true that the man had obtained employment at sea for four months, that he had reported himself the day before going away at Hull and again on his return at Grimsby; and, if so, will he advise the remission of the remainder of the sentence?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYI have received a report of the reconviction of the man referred to. On his release in December last he took up his residence at Lowestoft, and last reported himself to the Lowestoft police on 272 the 1st January. During that month a summons was taken out against him for assault, but he disappeared, and though special attention was called in the Police Gazette to the fact that he might be found at Hull or Grimsby, the places where the prisoner alleges he reported himself, nothing more was heard of him until the present month. On his own statement even, which was entirely unsupported, he had committed an offence by leaving Lowestoft without reporting his intention of doing so to the police. The Hull police, moreover, deny that he has reported himself to them during the present year. The prosecution was undertaken, in the usual manner, by the county of Suffolk police, and I see no reason for interference. The man's previous record is a very bad one.