“Cowardly, Immoral Act” Brings Prison

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28742, 13 November 1958, Page 10

“Cowardly, Immoral Act” Brings Prison

(New Zealand Press Association)

GISBORNE. Nov. 12.

“How long ago is it that you would never have contemplated such an unmanly, cowardly, and immoral act? Two or three years perhaps? I do not believe that young men start their teens as young brutes, but in that time you became just plain animals,’’ Mr Justice Boys told three young men, convicted last w r eek of rape and attempted rape of a 13-year-old girl when they appeared this morning for sentence.

His Honour sentenced Donald Richard McLatchie, aged 17, a machinist, to three years’ imprisonment, Michael John Vance, aged 17, a clerk, to three years’ Borstal training, and Peter Graham Dawson, aged 18, a postman, to three years’ probation on strict conditions. McLatchie and Vance were sentenced for rape and Dawson for attempted rape. “Gross Crime’’ “You are for sentence on a gross crime,’’ his Honour said. ‘*l wonder if you yet realise that what occurred on October 24 was the almost inevitable result of a pattern of behaviour and conduct which had gone on for a long time past. “I am to sentence you, not only for what you did, but also for what you had allowed yourselves to become. “One of the shocking elements of the offence was that none of you—except, perhaps, Dawson in a limited way—had any sense of mercy or chivalry for the girl who was powerless in your hands.

“I must consider the sentence to be imposed under four heads: to punish you for the outrage; to deter you and others from doing or thinking of doing any similar act; to protect even silly little girls from such as you; and to reform you from what you have deteriorated to.

“The last is the most important for you and for society.’’

His Honour said that until recently the sentence for this offence could be accompanied by flogging and many people believed that flogging was still requisite.

On the evidence, McLatchie was the worst of the three offenders. He must learn to hate himself for what he did and for the cost of it. McLatchie had been a focal point for trouble and would probably be the same in Borstal. His Honour quoted the legislation in reference to the imprisonment of persons of McLatchie’s age and also a recent Court of Appeal ruling on the same issue. He considered McLatchie’s case was an exceptional one. “You insist on

behaving as if you were years older than your age. You are sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. A grown man would receive twice that.’’ “Lost Instincts of Decency’’ His Honour told Vance that counsel’s pleas for probation could not be granted, but that he could serve a lesser period of Borstal training than the threeyear maximum. Vance was paying the price for rejecting past advice and for losing his instincts of decency which would have deterred him from such an act. Dawson was the oldest, but in some ways the weakest of “this gang of heartless hoodlums,” his Honour said. Dawson’s probation conditions included a direction not to associate with any of the persons concerned in the offences (including the two girls). He is not to own or drive a motorvehicle without permission, he must live and work where directed, his earnings are to be under the control of the probation officer and he must abstain from liquor and pay £5O costs.