GAOL FOR SEVEN

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23740, 11 September 1942, Page 7

GAOL FOR SEVEN

CONSTABtE ; SENTENCED KOR ATTEMPTED MURDER (P.A.) AUCKLAND, September 10. Herbert Hunter Barrett, a poliefe con* stable, who pleaded guilty at Kai> taia last week to having attempted to muder a. Dalmatian by shooting him in the back when he was walking behind the man in a lonely bush spot at Lake Ohia, came before Mr Justice Fair in the Supreme Court to-day for sentence, „ _ Barrett’s counsel (Mr J. B. Reynolds) drew attention to Barrett’s statement that no one knew how he had fought agaipst an awful urge which was too strong for him until the moment arrived when he realised what he had done. There were seven bullets in the revolver. After two had been fired, the Dalmatian turned round, and Barrett awoke to realisation, and had since suffered great agony. He was 41 years of age, with a wife and two daughters, and had been about to be transferred- on promotion to Waiuku. He had had an excellent police record. Mr S. Cleal, for the Crown, said-the evidence showed the crime had been premeditated, the motive being destruction of the evidence of a loan of £250. The offence had brought disgrace to Barrett’s uniform. Barrett’s salary and allowances for 1941 totalled £373, with a free house and a cost-of-living allowance. . , , . His Honour said it was painful tp see a man with such a good record up for sentence on so grave a charge, but for a planned and deliberate attempt to murder there could be no excuse. The offence had not .been a sudden surge of some evil influence, but carefully thought out There had beeiv no provocation of any kind, and it had been a cold-blooded attempt to avpid repayment to a benefactor of money which was not repayable for two years. The least sentence which he felt it was, his duty to impose was seven years’ imprisonment with hard labour.