Sentence Reduced On Appeal

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28256, 18 April 1957, Page 19

Sentence Reduced On Appeal

An appeal by John William Carter, aged 27, against the sentence of corrective training imposed on him in the Magistrate’s Court in October, 1956, was allowed by Mr Justice Adams in the Supreme Court yesterday. His Honour quashed the sentence of corrective training and substituted one of nine months’ imprisonment. Mr J. A. Bretherton, who represented Carter, submitted that the sentence of corrective training for two charges of breaking and entering and one of theft was excessive. At the time he committed these offences Carter was destitute and living in an abandoned house in the most wretched conditions. Two of the offences were committed to obtain food and clothing. His Honour said that the case was now before him for the third time. It had been adjourned on two previous occasions so that Carter could be medically examined on the possibility of his having suffered a brain injury in a serious accident three years ago. The medical report said that nothing could be done to relieve a brain injury if one did exist. It also said that there was no reason why Carter should not be dealt with in the ordinary way and that he was not likely to offend again. His Honour said that Carter had not been in trouble until he was 25. The sentence of corrective training would be quashed and in lieu thereof Carter would be sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment on each of the two charges of breaking, entering and theft, and three months’ imprisonment on the charge of theft, all the sentences to be concurrent and to run from October 25, 1956.