OBSCENE EXPOSURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 236, 5 October 1936, Page 9

OBSCENE EXPOSURE.

' CHASE BY TAXI DRIVER. ENGINEER SENT .TO PRISON. A civil engineer, Octavius George Garlick, aged 49, .was sentenced to three months' imprisonment by Mr. F. K. Hunt, SM„ in the Police Court to-day on a charge of wilful and obscene exposure in a Queen Street shop last Thursday night. Garlick, for whom Mr. Spencer Mason appeared, pleaded guilty. Detective-Sergeant McHugh, who prosecuted, said Garlick went into a shop in Queen Street about 9.30 p.m. on October 1 and ordered some sweets from the young woman who was alone on duty. It was when the young woman was about to hand him the sweets that Garlick committed the offence. The young woman called Garlick a. "filthy brute." Ho then ran away. "Just as Garlick was leaving the shop a taxidriver came in and when told about the offence he followed accused along various streets and gave him in charge," added the detective-sergeant. "Garlick is a married man of some means and has held a position in the city for the past 29 years. He has some previous convictions. At the present time there is quite an epidemic of indecent assaults and these cases of obscene exposure, so the mattM is rather serious. Those cases ai e always hard to detect, but this man was caught in the act."

Detective-Sergeant McHugh said great credit was due to tile taxi driver who followed Garlick and give him in charge. After remarking that he was aware that many otherwise respectable men did this sort of thing," Mr. Mason said Garlick was not a man who belonged to the pervert class. His offence was solely attributable to being under the influence •of liquor. "He was actually arrested for drunkenness on Thursday night and the following morning he was fined for being drunk, so he must have been very drunk when this offence was committed," said counsel. "In 1919 when he was convicted for indecency he was drunk. Drink is his trouble. He says that at times he has an irresistible craving for liquor. It is well known that when a person is under the influence of liquor the control of his senses disappears' " Mr. F. K. Hunt: Yes, and we also know there is no excuse for taking liquor. '

The manager of the firm which employed Garlick, in evidence, said Garlick had worked there for 29 years, excepting when he was absent at the war on active service. His character was good, he was an excellent man at his profession, and witness had never seen him under the influence of liquor. Detective A. Moore was then called, and said he arrested Garlick in 1932 for common assault on three different girls. He was also drunk then.

"It is my duty to protect girls from men of this sort," said Mr. Hunt, in sentencing Garliek. "He knows what he is liable to do when he gets drunk. A fine is no good to him, as he is well off and can pay a fine. He ris sentenced to three months' imprisonment."