HEAVY SENTENCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 11

HEAVY SENTENCE

AFTER CAREFUL HEARING

After the unusual course of having had the prisoner medically reported on. and having assigned counsel to look into his case and plead his side, Mr. Justice Callan sentenced Robert Lindsay Brunton bushman, aged 43 years, to seven years' hard labour, and declared him to be an habitual criminal. Brunton had pleaded guilty to three offences of attempted rape, the charges having resulted through admissions by him when he was interviewed concerning another offence of a sexual nature.

After having perused the doctor's report and heard counsel, his Honor said the offences were against a child, a young woman and a woman of middle age, all in varying circumstances, but indicating that the man showed ferocity when resisted. There were also convictions of indecent exposure against him, and the Court was fully satisfied that a man liable to such conduct should not be at large. The medical report showed that he was sane, and he had to be treated accordingly. Though the man had not previously been before the Court on an indictable offence, his Honor felt that the Court had power to declare him an habitual criminal.