KELMAN GIVEN 12 YEARS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28346, 3 August 1957, Page 14

KELMAN GIVEN 12 YEARS

Manslaughter Of Wife

(New Zeaiana Press Association) HAMILTON, August 2.

• Found by a jury on Wednesday to be not guilty of murder, but guilty of the manslaughter of his wiie at Morrinsville on April 20 last, William Raymond Kelman, aged 30, a butcher, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment by Mr Justice North in the Supreme Court at Hamilton when he appeared for sentence this morning.

Mr N. I. Smith, for Kelman, submitted that considerable weight should be given to the fact that the jury had accepted the plea of provocation put forward by the defence, and that this should be taken into account in fixing the penalty His Honour said he would say no more about the jury’s verdict than that he considered himself that the jury had taken a very benevolent view of the instructions they had received from him on the subject of provocation. He said he must, however, accept the view that Kelman was or may have been subjected to provocation.

His Honour said that apart from Kelman’s crime it must be made clear when cases were in the hands of the Court and not in the hands of the jury that husbands who lost their temper with their wives were not going to escape lightly from their crimes. He said he felt that the case was one for a heavy sentence.