COMMENT BY JUDGE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24445, 20 December 1944, Page 8

COMMENT BY JUDGE

— ■ SENTIMENT AGAINST WHIPPING YOUNG MEN APPEAR FOR SENTENCE "I am old-tashloned enough to believe that If these young men had been given a whipping at the appropriate time it might have had the effect of impressing upon them a sense of what is wrongdoing. This is a sentimental age in which such -whipping is not permitted. It is a sentimentalism which allows the development of criminals." This comment was made by Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court yesterday after pleas by counsel for two men who appeared for sentence. The men were Desmond Patrick Egan (Mr J. K. Moloney), aged 20, who had pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court to a charge of breaking and entering premises, and William George Davison (Mr W. R. Lascelles), aged 17J, who had pleaded guilty to two charges of breaking and entering and committing theft. Counsel in each, case said that the accused came frcm a good family. His Honour said that both had been on release from a Borstal institution bn licence at the time of committing the offences. He committed each to a further three years in a Borstal institution, the term to be cumulative with, the remainder of their respective present sentences. Breaking and Entering Leo Patrick Prendergast • (Mr A. C. Perry), George Finlayson, and ' Jeffrey Francis Evans Turner (Mr W, R. Lascelles) appeared for sentence, having pleaded guilty to breaking and entering premises and committing theft. To Mr Perry’s plea for Prendergast. his Honour commented; "He, too, seems to have suffered from lack of a whipping at the appropriate time." ' ’ Mr Lascelles said that Finlayson, aged 24 and married, had met Turner at Porlrua, where they had recently been mental hospital attendants. Finlayson had been drinking and it was his first trouble of any sort. Turner, ’ aged 23, had had hereditary handicaps, and had lacked proper parental guidance in early life. ■ Turner, said his Honour, seemed determined to go on in an effort to become a criminal, and had undertaken a deliberate crime. He wquld be sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with hard labour. ' , His Hondfcr said that he was prepared to take the view that Finlayson had been stupid enough to get into criminal associations. He, would be placed on probation for two .years and would,have to take out a VfbHlbltibh" 'ordfe^'fOr' 1 that period. ■ "i‘; i- • * •. • , He was unable, said his Honour, to extend leniency to Prendergast, who had had a series of convictions and had had the Court’s indulgence in the hope that he would recover. Prendergast would be committed to two years' detention in a Borstal institution. . „ On an application by Mr A. W. Brown (for the Crown), his Honour ordered Finlayson to make restitution of one-third of the total amount Involved. Escape from Custody Kenneth Edward Austin, who appeared for sentence on,,a charge of having escaped .from lawful custody, was , sentenced to an additional four months’ imprisonment. . . Austin pleaded that he had escaped from prison to get attention for headaches, as her could get nothing from the prison doctor to cure them, and that he had become "a bundle of nerves" there. His Honour said that having regard to the accused’s experience of institutions of the sort, the escape seemed somewhat foolish and more likely to aggravate than to alleviate his troubles. There was a prison surgeon who could surely be trusted to see that the accused received more attention if it was required. When Austin said that hts sickness se-med to have been held in contempt, his Honour said that the accused knew there, were authorities ■he could appeal to if he had grievances in that respect.