PAUL TOOHEY The Australian, 13 May 1999

Transported to jail for a year for stealing a towel

A HOMELESS man was jailed for 12 months in the Northern Territory yesterday for stealing a towel from a clothes line.

His lawyer condemned the penalty, saying: "We haven't come far from the days of transporting people for stealing a loaf of bread."

Kevin Anthony Cook, a "longgrass" or homeless man, who has roamed Darwin for some years since leaving his island home of Milikapiti, become the first person to receive the minimum 12 months for a "third strike" property offence under the Territory's manditory sentencing laws.