SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23319, 3 May 1941, Page 5

SUPREME COURT

PRISONERS SENTENCED Francis Clark, a motor driver, aged 34,' who pleaded guilty to being intoxicated in charge of a;motor-car, causing bodily injury to William Forbury Sutton,- was: sentenced to .one {month’s; im■prisonment 'by his Honb.ur ■ Mr Justice Northcroft;in -the Supreme Court yesterday. His driving'licence was can-’ celled.’and hewasrprohibited from securing, another ;for 12 months. The accident ircm;which‘ the charge arose occurred in Papanui road on March 14, Clark’s counsel (Mr C. S. Thomas) said that his client, a-single man, had not been in trouble before in , his lifer, time, and was not . a man' who drank to excess. The evidence in this charge did!not put'lt-in the category of a man 'passing a stationary tram and. knocking jdownra: pedestrian. The tram •was moving. His Honour: It was on the pointvof stopping. Mr Thomas went oh to refer to what he described as difficulties which faced Christchurch motorists. ,80 many cyclists Were bn the road that motorists might be put' in 'the position of having to take what opportunities they could to sneak past, Clark;was .to enter camp next week.- Mr .Thomas asked.' his Honour .to take that into account when deciding whether or not Clark .should be sent to.prison. The case was not that of a moral wrong such as a serious crime. . . ,' .

“This is indeed a moral lapse,” said his Honour, "that a man in that state' shoyld be in the public such a sentence as will .prove a deteron counsel's remarks about the special difficulties of driving in r Christchurch; because |he had, nqt sufficient informal tion before him iahd because he did not think they were appropriate •to the case. Accused had begun drinking before lunch and- at 9 o’clock in the .evening was.in a state of considerable, Irifoxicgtidn.'J - Breaking, Entering, and Theft . who was itjbt; represented : 'By counsel; was" sentenced to 12 monthsVimprisQnment with •hard labour Ihr entering,,and ‘ffiy^Ac^d^had^.a^ad;;,record, his strongly advised - interest- to consider :WarWm#m'be declared if that JM was added, to. ■ ■