UNUSUAL CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 12

UNUSUAL CASE.

MARRIED MAN FINED. COMMUNICATED WITH GIRL A CHILD WELFARE WARD. i An unusual charge—that of unlawfrom holding communication with a 17-year-old girl, an inmate of a receiving home under the Child Welfare Department —was brought against Stanley Campbell Sycamore, a married man, of Waiuku, in the Police Court yesterday afternoon. Sub-Inspector Fox prosecuted and defendant, who pleaded not guilty, wsuj represented by Mr. J. K. \\\ Dickson. The matron of the institution paid in evidence that the girl in question was working as a domestic at a private home in Remuera. She had Wednesday afternoons free and reported to witness at the home. Although living away, the girl was still under the control of the Department. Permission was necessary before persons could communicate with the inmate& of the home.

Evidence of several meetings with Sycamore was given by another inmate of the home aged about 18 years. She 6tated that she was employed under much the same conditions as the girl in question. In company with this girl, she had been driving in accused's car, being taken on one occasion to the home. In Police Car. Constable T. D. Griffiths said he went in a police car to the New Street home on March 23 and picked up ah officer of the home and two girls and drove to the Three Lamps. The two girls got out and went to speak to Sycamore and then returned to the police car. Oil March 30 at 2.45 witness went to High Street with Constable Gordon and a Child Welfare officer. He saw one of the girls go to Sycamore's car.

"I was close enough to Sycamore's car to hear him say to the girl, 'Come on, get in,'" said the constable. "I asked Sycamore why he was communicating with a ward of the State. In a statement which he made and which I wrote down in the car, Sycamore said he did not know she was a ward of the State. He denied he had arranged to meet her. Sycamore declined to sign the statement."

Evidence that she had written to Sycamore at Waiuku on February 17 asking him to refrain from sending messages to a girl, and warning him that he was liable to prosecution if he persisted, was given by Kathleen Muriel Stewart, Senior Child Welfare Officer.

Counsel'* Argument. The proceedings against Sycamore, submitted Mr. Dickson, were taken under Section 25 of the Child Welfare Act, which said that person, without lawful authority or excuse, could communicate with an inmate. Counsel also submitted that a person could do whatever he liked so long a* the law said it could not be done. There was nothing in the Act prohibiting him from communicating with the girl. "What has he done that is unlawful?" asked Mr. Dickson. "If a girl is out on license and eomeone asks her to go to the pictures, that is a 'communication.' Obviously the Act means a common inmate. Sycamore is entitled to communicate with the girl because there is no prohibition in the Act at all—" The Magistrate: Following your argument, Mr. Dickson, there is nothing to stop me going to an institution and removing her. Mr. Dickson: She would be confined in an institution. In this case my client has a lawful excuse because what he did is not contrary to the law. What authority has he got to get if he wants to speak to her? The Magistrate: That of the superintendent. "So far as the law is concerned it is not unlawful if it is outside the institution," continued Mr. Dickson. "Will this Court rule that it is unlawful for the girl to be spoken to in the street ?" "It might be," said the magistrate. "I don't know where you get the justification for that if a person knows she k an inmate." "Then she is a prisoner," counsel said. The Magistrate: He must show some excuse or lawful authority. Any excuse is all right if it is not against the law. From whom is he to get the lawful authority? Obviously the superintendent or child welfare officer. Magistrate's Ruling. Mr, Dickson: .However, I will rely on my argument and will leave the matter at that. Does your Worship rule against me? Mr. Orr Walker said that he would liave to. Counsel asked the magistrate to take into consideration the evidence which he submitted was so unsatisfactory that Sycamore should not be convicted. Mr. Orr Walker said a relation or an employer would have a lawful excuse,' but not a stranger. Counsel said he would admit Sycamore had communicated but he still held thai what he had done was not against the law. He did meet the girls on two or three occasions but had cease i doing so since March 23. Sub-Inspector Fox: The child welfare department regards this man Sycamore as a menace. He still persists in endeavouring to communicate with a girl who has been transferred to Christchurch, and the matter of a prosecution against him in this connection 13 at present Under consideration. Mr. Fox produced f»r the magistrate's perusal, two letters which he said Sycamore had sent to a girl. Both were decorated with a coloured border of flowers. "These show the type of letter he writes," Mr. Fox. "For a married man of his age they indicate what is in his mind. He is regarded as one Vrho i« becoming dangerous— "There is nothing salacious in them," Baid Mr. Dickson. Sub-Inspector Fox: No. I have seeh Worse. The Magistrate: They read like letters from a love eick youth. He is a married man. is he? Mr. Dickson: Yes, and living apart from his wife at present. "Ulterior Motives." The magistrate said he had no hesitation in holding that the girl was an inmate of an institution and under its care, and that Sycamore had no right to comunicate with her. "Any man of tbo world can only come to one conclusion—that this man had ulterior motives. What girl could resist what the inevitable would be if this sort of thing was allowed to go on? A married man of his age, he had only thing in view. These girls have got to be Watched and cared for." Sycamore was fined £20 and 19/ costs. When Mr. Dickson moved for leave to the magistrate intimated that llgijfc would consider the matter in