Supreme Court WOMAN AND TWO MEN SENTENCED TO GAOL

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29222, 4 June 1960, Page 7

Supreme Court WOMAN AND TWO MEN SENTENCED TO GAOL

Daphne Margaret Noreen McIntosh, aged 30, a domestic, was said by Mr Justice Adams in the Supreme Court yesterday to be the instigator of an attempt to rob a man of £3O at a wedding party, and was warned by his Honour that if she offended again she would almost certainly receive a sentence of preventive detention (from 3 to 14 years’ imprisonment).

Mclntosh appeared for sentence on a charge of attempting to rob Desmond William Barry, aged 34. a freezing worker, about 1 a.m. on April 15 at 17 Faraday street, Sydenham. William Anthony Howard, aged 22, a workman, also appeared for sentence on the same charge, and Daniel John Martin, aged 22. a workman, appeared for sentence on a charge of assaulting Barry so as to cause him actual bodily harm. . His Honour sentenced Mclntosh and Howard to 18 months’ imprisonment each and Martin to one year’s imprisonment. Hie Crown Prosecutor (Mr P. T. Mahon) appeared for the Crown, Mr C. B. Atkinson for Mclntosh, Mr G. T. Mahon for Martin, and Mr P. J. McAloon for Howard. For Mclntosh, Mr Atkinson submitted that she had spent a large part of her adult life in prison after leaving an unsatisfactory home and becoming a ward of the State in her youth. Taking into account the low degree of the prisoner’s intelligence, emotional stability, and her constant contact with lawless and anti-social persons, it was not surprising that she had failed to become an ordinary citizen, counsel said. For the first time in her life, a decent family had shown an interest in the prisoner, and she would have been married and have lived fa the country but for the present offence. The prisoner was suffering from a chronic disease caused by personality defects and, counsel submitted, a long term of imprisonment would not fit the case. Counsel submitted that the prisoner was not the instigator of the crime, but his Honour said his impression was that she was the instigator. Counsel submitted that although the prisoner might have instigated the affair, it was a spur-of-the-moment crime.

The prisoner Mclntosh had now been before the Court on 16 occasions and had been convicted of 20 crimes, excluding her juvenile Court appearances, said his Honour. During the last 10 years, the prisoner had been in prison eight times and had spent 5} years of the period in gaol. She had now qualified for a sentence of preventive detention, but he did not think this sentence necessary on this occasion. Poor Background

Mr McAloon said that Howard had a very poor background with no normal affection or family life. The majority of his previous crimes were offences against property and drink was the cause of his crimes, which had worsened over the last 14 months. His Honour told Howard that he had taken part in a vicious and brutal assault on Barry. Howard’s record included convictions for conversion, shop-break-ing and theft and he was only aged 22. Howard had been on probation when he committed his present offence. “Drinking Orgy”

For Martin, Mr McAloon said that six of the prisoner’s previous convictions were for assault. Most of his trouble was due to drink. “The prisoner was at a party which can only be described as a drinking orgy. The detectives said that when they arrived all present at the party were intoxicated, and the prisoner, in his own statement to the police,

said he had consumed a great deal of liquor.” His Honour said that Martin had no criminal record until he was aged 20 In the last four years he had three times been before the Court for crimes of violence, on one occasion, being convicted of four charges of assault.

The prisoner had no crimes of dishonesty and his fault seemed to be that he was a man given to violence.

As it happened, the maximum sentence for assault causing actual bodily harm was three years’ gaol as against the maximum of two years for attempted robbery, his Honour commented.