Appeal Against 14-year Gaol Term For Rape

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29842, 7 June 1962, Page 14

Appeal Against 14-year Gaol Term For Rape

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, June 6. The Full Court of Appeal, comprising five judges, today reserved its decision in an appeal brought by Bruce Keith Metcalfe, of Auckland, a rubber worker, against his sentence of 14 years' imprisonment on a charge of raoe For Metcalfe. ■Mr S C Ennor said the evidence showed that the appellant was backward and subnormal to the point of being a borderline mental defective He had a mental age of about 10 or 11 “Deprived of a normal home environment, tie was at the age of seven the victim of a criminal assault Later in his life he was subjected to certain malpractices by his father, who now stands charged with two charges of sodomy." said Mr Ennor

Throughout his life Metcalfe had been subject to a oernicious and persuasive se v ual indoctrination by his father Mr Ennor submitted that this was not a case for the mnosition or the maximum sentence ""he trial judge had erred in applying the preventive orinc'ole and the sen’ence imnosed was mini-fe-tlv excessive for a firs’ ''Render aged 17 years I’ was a sentence of unor»cedented 'everity

Tn his submissions for the Crown th° (Mr H R C Wild. QC> =aid two cms'deratioos would su'de th® Court The first, and foremost, consideration <n deciding a sentence was public mtr-est and the second was the particular circumstance' of this particular case which were most un-

usual, if not unique in recent years

Metcalfe was two days short of 18 years at the time he was sentenced

He had attended "special schools" until he was 15, after which he had drifted from one job to another He was the third son and Lie fourth child in his family and had a background of 'exual matters dating from the age of seven He had been sexually assaulted bv his father, his brother, and a friend of the family Mr Wild submitted that although the sentence was formally for 14 years’ imprisonment. the case could come up tor review at any time by the parole board