ILLEGAL OPERATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 37, 13 February 1931, Page 13

ILLEGAL OPERATION.

■• . I MAN AND WOMAN GAOLED. A GRAVE OFFENCE COMMITTED. A man and woman ' who had been found guilty of performing an illegal operation were sentenced by Mr. Justice Herdman in the Auckland Supreme Court to-day to.terms of imprisonment. The prisoners were Jack Van Dyk, salesman, and Edith Mary Beagles. Mr. Singer, in a plea for leniency, said Van Dyk was the father of four young children, and had been led to take up a malpractice because of his struggle for a livelihood. It was' the first time he had appeared for an offence of this kind,, and counsel asked the Court to look upon him as a. first offender. He submitted there could be no, difference, in this class of offence, between men and women. The jury, in its verdict, found Mrs. Beagles guilty "as an accomplice" and made a strong recommendation to mercy. She had had a hard struggle for a livelihood, said Mr. Singer, and gained nothing whatever by her part in. the crime. Mr. Meredith, Crown Prosecutor, said the prompt action of both prisoners in calling a doctor saved* a woman from danger, although they knew it might lead to their prosecution. "It may be this is not euch a serious case as others 1 have had to deal with," said his Honor, in passing sentence, "but it was proved you wei'e both implicated. The offence is'looked upon as one of gravity." Regarding Van Dyk, the police report was not satisfactory, and the suggestion was made by the probation officer and also by police that it was not an isolated case. Van Dyk was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour, and Mrs. Beagles to nine months.