Gaoled 14 Years For Rape, Aged 17

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29800, 17 April 1962, Page 10

Gaoled 14 Years For Rape, Aged 17

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 16. The maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment for rape was imposed on Bruce Keith Metcalfe, a 17-year-old rubber woiker. when he appeared for sentence before Mr Justice Turner in the Supreme Court at Auckland today for the ra|»e ot a 16-year-old schoolgirl on the night of March 13.

His Honour directed that the prisoner should be given such psychiatric treatment as shall be indicated and that the Secretary of Justice be requested to place his case before the Parole Board from time to time. In his opinion, the first such review should be made in five years' time, said his Honour. He said he was not consenting to any demand for severity by any section of the public The Court was , moved by emotions of horror and compassion. Metcalfe had a dreadful personal and family history. Mr S C. Ennor. appearing with Mr K L. Peterson, for Metcalfe, said the accused had a mental age of between ■ 10 and 11. He was almost a mental defective. At the age of seven M-et- ' calfe had been subjected to a criminal sexual assault and since then he had received 1 pernicious and persistent ■ sexual indoctrination. This was not a case of gang rape, nor were there , repeated acts and no great force was used. In his mind. Metcalfe was approaching puberty. He had

not been educated in the purest sense of toe word. Borstal or prison would give him no help for the future. A psychiatrist's report said Metcalfe might be viewed as having a childlike mind but with the force of a man. Mr Ennor said in his submission an opportunity should be created to allow helpful influence! into Metcalfe's life. Mr G. D. Speight, for toe Crown, said the deterrent effect of the sentence must be very important. This was a matter which the public conscience was very aware of His Honour said Metcalfe had a terrible personal environment by which his character had been debauched “I must regard him as incapable of reformation," he said. .

Bomber Record— A Royal Air Force Vulcan bomber flew 3674 miles non-stop from Waddington, Lincolnshire, to Khormaksar, Aden, in six hours 14 minutes recently. The flight beat the record set by a Valiant bomber in 1960 by 57 minutes.