A NEW ZEALAND WOMAN WHO WAS JAILED FOR FIVE YEARS

A NEW ZEALAND WOMAN WHO WAS JAILED FOR FIVE YEARS AFTER SHE

ROBBED A BANK USING A HOAX BOMB, DID IT TO HELP THE STARVING PEOPLE

OF ETHIOPIA, THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL, LONDON, WAS TOLD YESTERDAY

MONDAY.

DEBORAH JUDITH AYTON, 32, WAS ‘DEEPLY DISTURBED’ BY AN

ARTICLE SHE READ IN THE SUNDAY TIMES ON JUNE 9TH 1985 ABOUT THE

PLIGHT OF AFRICAN FAMINE VICTIMS, THE COURT HEARD.

‘SHE BEGAN TO REFLECT ON THE APPALLING GULF BETWEEN OUR

LIFESTYLE AND THAT OF THE PEOPLE IN ETHIOPIA, BUT DECIDED THAT NO

INDIVIDUAL COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT,’ THE APPEAL JUDGE SAID.

‘SHE THOUGHT THE ROBBERY OF A BANK WOULD DRAW ATTENTION TO

IT.

‘

NEXT DAY, DRESSED IN A HOODED KAGOOL AND SAILING HAT, AND

ARMED WITH AN IMITATION REVOLVER AND A HOAX BOMB MADE FROM CANDLES

AND BROWN PAPER, AYTON RAIDED THE CHEPSTOW BRANCH OF MIDLAND BANK IN

GWENT.

AFTER PASSING A NOTE TO THE CASHIER, WARNING THAT SHE WAS

CARRYING A LIMPET MINE, SHE RAN OFF WITH #16OO IN BANK-NOTES, BUT WAS

CAUGHT 200 YARDS DOWN CHEPSTOW HIGH STREET WHEN A BANK CUSTOMER

RUGBY-TACKLED HER FROM BEHIND.

WHEN SHE WAS ARRESTED, SHE TOLD POLICE SHE HAD STAGED THE

ROBBERY TO ATTRACT PUBLICITY TO THE PLIGHT OF STARVING ETHIOPIANS.

ON NOVEMBER 20 1985, AT THE NEWPORT CROWN COURT, AYTON, OF

PENHOW CASTLE, PENHOW, GWENT, PLEADED GUILTY TO DEMANDING MONEY WITH

MENACES, PLACING AN IMITATION BOMB IN THE BANK AND POSSESSING AN

IMITATION FIREARM.

SHE WAS SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IMPRISONMENT.

DESCRIBING THE RAID AS ‘AN ACT OF FOLLY’, MISS MARY

PARRY-JONES, DEFENDING, SAID, ‘SHE STILL HOLDS THE VIEW THAT WHAT SHE

WAS DOING WAS FOR A GOOD MOTIVE, ALBEIT A MISGUIDED ONE.

‘

APPEALING AGAINST SENTENCE, MISS PARRY-JONES ADDED THAT FIVE

YEARS WAS TOO HARSH AND DID NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THAT AYTON HAD

PLEADED GUILTY AT THE TRIAL, NO-ONE WAS INJURED DURING THE ROBBERY

AND THERE WERE NO FRIGHTENING SCENES OF VIOLENCE IN THE BANK.

AYTON, A NEW ZEALANDER WITH A LAW DEGREE, HAD HAD A SERIES OF

GOOD JOBS IN THE UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN IN THE COMPUTER GRAPHICS

FIELD, SAID MISS PARRY-JONES.

SHE HAD NOT APPARENTLY CARRIED OUT THE RAID FOR PERSONAL

FINANCIAL REASONS, SINCE SHE AND HER FAMILY WERE ‘COMFORTABLE’.

‘SHE HAS HIGH PERSONAL QUALITIES.

.

.

AND IS A CARING AND

UNDERSTANDING PERSON.

THIS OFFENCE WAS COMPLETELY OUT OF CHARACTER,

AND SHE WOULD NEVER OFFEND AGAIN.

‘

PRAISING THE ‘GREAT COURAGE’ OF THE CUSTOMER WHO TACKLED

AYTON AFTER THE ROBBERY, AND DESCRIBING THE CASHIER AS ‘A LADY OF

SPIRIT’, LORD JUSTICE GLIDEWELL CAST DOUBT ON AYTON’S SUDDEN

DISCOVERY OF THE ETHIOPIAN FAMINE.

‘NO HALF-INTELLIGENT PERSON WHO LIVED IN A WESTERN COUNTRY

COULD BE UNAWARE OF IT IN THE SUMMER OF 1985,’ HE SAID.

AND IN A BRIEF REFERENCE TO BOB GELDOF, THE JUDGE ADDED THAT,

ALTHOUGH AYTON HAD ‘DECIDED THAT NO INDIVIDUAL COULD DO SOMETHING

ABOUT IT, THAT IS NOT A VIEW THAT OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE RISEN TO

PROMINENCE RECENTLY WOULD SHARE.

‘

HE SAID THAT THE TRIAL JUDGE DID NOT KNOW WHAT AYTON’S

MOTIVATION FOR THE ROBBERY WAS, AND NOBODY KNOWS FOR SURE.

‘WHEN SHE WAS ARRESTED, SHE GAVE A FALSE NAME, TOLD A PACK OF

LIES AND THEN REFUSED TO GIVE FURTHER INFORMATION TO THE POLICE.

‘

‘IN ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES, WE CANNOT THINK THAT THE SENTENCE

WAS IN ANY WAY EXCESSIVE AND THE APPEAL IS DISMISSED.

‘

ENDS.