PRISON TERM IMPOSED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29270, 30 July 1960, Page 17

PRISON TERM IMPOSED

Indecency Charge Charles Stanton Turner, aged 60, a clerk, was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment by Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court on a charge of attempted indecent assault on a boy on April 15. Mr H. S. Thomas appeared for Turner and Mr C. M. Roper appeared for the Crown. The prisoner had only one previous conviction, for a similar offence, but that was 13 years ago. The probation officer’s report said tiie prisoner was unlikely to offend again, said Mr Thomas.

He submitted that a suspended sentence or a term of probation would be a suitable punishment for the Court to impose. Mr Roper said it was clear that the boy had been co-operative. He had made a statement to the police saying he had been present at a pensioners’ establishment when the boys had been indecently assaulted. His Honour said that Turner suffered from homosexual tendencies and on occasions could not control them. He had listened carefully to what counsel and Mr Roper had to say. It appeared that the boy had led Turner into temptation and Turner had succumbed to it. Had this not been the case, he would have imposed a longer term of imprisonment than Turner had been sentenced to for his offence of 13 years ago. It was a case in which a prison term must be imposed, his Honour concluded.