Married Man On Trial: Allegedly Molested Girl

Press, Volume C, Issue 29673, 17 November 1961, Page 17

Married Man On Trial: Allegedly Molested Girl

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Nov. 16. An 11-year-old girl alleged in the Supreme Court at Wellington today that Desmond William John Earnshaw, 32, a driver, married, forced her to leave her bed and, after taking her away and molesting her, returned her to her mother. On the application by the Crown Prosecutor (Mr J. D. Murray), an order was made by Mr Justice Haslam that the Court be cleared in the interests of public morality. Mr R. Stacey is appearing for Earnshaw, who pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted rape and not guilty to an alternative charge of attempting to carnally know a girl under the age of 12. He pleaded guilty to a charge of indecently assaulting a female. The girl said she and her younger sister went to bed in the sunporch of their home at Naenae. Later that night she woke and found a man on her bed. She screamed and the man struck her face. He told her that if she screamed he would kill her. Blindfolding her with her blouse, he took her to a van outside her house and. after driving some distance, put her on some grass. He asked her how old she was. and

when she said she was 11, he stopped molesting her and let her get up. He then accompanied her home and told her mother what had happened. The girl identified the accused as the man who had taken her away. Thomas Henry Cornish, a medical practitioner, said that, he found three bruises on the girl’s neck. Her face was swollen, tender and suffused. She had extensive sub - conjunctival hemorrhages of the eyes. The appearance of her face and neck was consistent with throttling. He considered a severe degree of force had been applied. The girl’s mother said that before the alleged offence Earnshaw had visited her house four or five times at the invitation of her husband. The hearing will continue tomorrow.