PROTEST BY ACCUSED'S MOTHER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 114, 17 May 1927, Page 6

PROTEST BY ACCUSED'S MOTHER.

(To tbe Editor.) ' M '^ My son, Herbert Kilburn, was hr™..x* before the Supreme Court and <*ar C ed 2KS C f i." g K a ? d enteriD S- My boy tdmffi that he had gone on to the premises hntiZ stated in Court that he went there 'win. - older boy whom I now find is a <£&£ thief. My son admitted the truth, and ttL jury could do nothing less than brin- inT •"■ verdict of guilty of breaking and enJrmt with intent to commit the theft of some which my son said he proposed taking foTthL other man. When mv son came °un 1 ' sentence before Mr. Justice Herdman K counsel explained: (a) My son was only ser«Z. teen years of age and had an unblemisW character; (b) the jury had broucrhtini. strong recommendation for mercv; ( c \ «£ probation officer, Mr. Campbell, had reemn* mended probation; (d) he has never lost amr work, and his employer gave evidence that h* would keep him on. In spite of this th* ' judge sentenced my seventeen-vear-old bov t» twelve months' hard labour. I want to brhw these facts before the public, because it u useless the probation officer recommendhte' probation and the jury bringing in a stron? recommendation for mercy if this is what th»' judge does to a seventeen-year-old bov. < 4 H. KILBCBX. I have been watching with interest the case '' of a young lad just seventeen vears old charced with attempted burglary. In announchw ; the decision, the foreman of the jury twiea added a strong recommendation for leniency on account of the youth's age and «»ood' character—such, we presume, being the desire - of the jury whom he represented, and who. I after all, were the real judges. Not only did the lad's counsel submit excellent reference* from all his employers, but, in addition, the boy'i present employer—who had engaged him since. and, knowing the charge against him, personally and voluntarily appeared in Court to testify to the lad's excellent character. His Honor' disregarding these proofs of good character* preferred rather to take the word of the police that the lad was a larrikin, and, setting asidt the plea of the jury, sentenced the lad ts twelve months' hard labour. This, I hear k "-<■ the maximum penalty for a first offence. * ' JUSTTHA. ir * [Another correspondent writes criticisinr the sentence in this case.—Ed.] .