PRISONERS SENTENCED.

Auckland Star, Issue 123, 24 May 1919, Page 5

PRISONERS SENTENCED.

TWO GET FIVE YEARS. ATTEMPTED UNNATURAL OFFENCE. Several prisoners came before Mr. Justice Stringer at the Supreme Court this morning for sentence. Five years' improisonment was awarded to two miserable-looking men, George Dale and James Gilmour, who were convicted last Tuesday af attempting to commit an unnatural offence on a young boy at Rotorua, but wore acquitted of the major charge of committing the offence itself.

The Judge stated that as there were no previous convictions against either of the men, he must a.sume that they were not addicted tr> the practices in question. What they had done, however, was grossly indecent, and repulsive in the last degree. He saw no reason for assuming that the j-ry's verdict was unjust. "You have been convicted of a very foul and offensive crime, for which you are liable to flogging and ten years' imprisonment," he "I do not intend to impose ei'.ch a punishment as that, but in the interests of the community I must pass severe sentences upon you. The sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoned for five years each."

IA MISTAKEN PLEA. Some rather strange circumstances were disclosed in the case of George Gordon Coleman, an elderly man, who had pleaded guilty in the lower Court to a nine-year-old'charge of theft. The Judge ■emarked that if the accused's story, as ;et out on the papere, wa.i true, lie ought lever to have pleaded guilty. Mr Meredith ( [who appeared for Coleman) explained. ;hnt the accused, who was charged with j ■onverting to his own use- goods left in ' iis charge, had no legal advice, when he , ileadod guilty. He believed at the time :hnt the provisions of the law were such : ;hat he had no defence, and though the nagistrate advised him to consider the i nutter carefully, he pleaded as stated, j "'olomnn, said counsel, had given a con- ] iiderable amount of massage treatment to the man who left the goods in his j ;hari»e, and believed that he was entitled j to treat them as a set-off, against what ] was owinor to him. He had borne the highest possible reputation for honesty tor many years. The Judge paid it was a pity that the ncnu-ied was not advised, and that fie mari-'trate did not reject the plea. He would not submit him to the indignity of probation, but would order him to come up for sentence when called cm, conditionally or. hU rppnyine the value of the goods '( £1S) by instalments. YOUNG NATIVE THIEVES. 1 Rewi Grace and Hone Ripia, two young Maoris, appeared for sentence on a charge of breaking into a shed at Tuparoa and stealing a case of whisky, which they and some other natives afterwards used in a drunken orgy. Both were given bad characters by the police. They were sentenced to not more than one year's reformative treatment. Rere Kiwara, another young native, was brought up for breaking, entering, and theft. He. asked for probation on the ground of ill-health, but this the Judge would not grant, as. the accused had been several time previously convicted of petty thefts. He was ordered reformative treatment fur not more than two years. PROBATION ALLOWED. William Barbour, who had pleaded guilty to breaking and entering and the theft of a quantity of clothing and jewellery from a private house, was admitted to probation for twelve months, directed to take out a prohibition order, and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution, £8. His counsel, Mr Meredith, described Barbour's act as a piece of drunken folly, and the judge concurred in this view. On a charge of breaking and entering and the theft of a sum of £1 1 1/, a young man named Walter Turner Mackrell, was put on rather more stringent probation for a term of two years. The probation officer (Rev. F. R. Jeffreys) stated that Mackrell was already on probation for ar earlier offence (stealing a cornet), bi/t he had behaved well on probation, aiid his prospects were encouraging. He was ordered to make restitution, and to i.ay £5 towards the costs of the prosecution. UP TO TnE LIMIT. Douglas Grant, an elderly man, wlio appeared on a charge of false pretences, was merely ordered to be imprisoned till the rising of tlv Court. It was stated that he was serving sentences for a long string of similar offences, and had also been declared an habitual criminal, so that the law could not punish him any further.