CHARACTER AND CONDUCT

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25245, 25 July 1947, Page 3

CHARACTER AND CONDUCT

A MAGISTRATE’S VIEW «RESPONSIBILITY RESTS ON INDIVIDUAL ” When a man, whose name was suppressed in the meantime, appeared in the Magistrate's Court yesterday for sei tence on a charge of wilfully committing an indecent act, Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., said it was a charge which concerned all decent people, those with young children. The reports of doctors and of the probation officer indicated there might have been some cause in the accused’s background as a soldier to make him do such things, said the Magistrate. He had to point out. however, that the ultimate responsibility rested on the individual. It was entirely a question of character and a man had to fight such tendencies. If the man did not do so, the man was deservedly punished. He would adjourn the matter for three months and consider it further at that time.

it further at that time. When an application was made that the accused’s name be suppressed, the Magistrate said he was not very much enamoured of the idea of suppressing names, but he would suppress the accused’s name in the meantime. “My inclination is to sentence him to a sharp term of imprisonment, and I do not do so only because of the medical reports,” added the Magistrate-