Chief Justice: ‘Rape Too Prevalent’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30678, 18 February 1965, Page 14

Chief Justice: ‘Rape Too Prevalent’

(New Zealand Press Ajiociation?

WELLINGTON, Feb. 17. Rape was becoming far too prevalent and the Court had a duty to impose more lengthy prison sentences if lesser penalties did not deter, the Chief Justice (Sir Harold Barrowclough) said in the Supreme Court today. Pone Kahotea Taite, aged 21, a workman, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on a charge of rape of an 18-year-old girl. On behalf of Taite, Mr D. L. Brooker said that (apart from three offences in Tauranga in 1962, arising from the same set of circumstances) Taite had led an uneventful and hard-working life. After he had come to the city, his association with persons other than his own family, together with his ad-

diction for alcohol, appeared to be his undoing. His Honour said there was a statutory provision in the Criminal Justice Act providing that a person under 21 may not be imprisoned unless, having regard to his character and personal history the Court was of the opinion that he ought to be imprisoned in spite of his age. At the time of the offence the prisoner was just under 21 and that provision did not •PPly. Even if it did, his Honour said, he would certainly have formed the opinion that Taite should be imprisoned. “I feel constrained to say that for the information of all other young men just under 21 who might be contemplating rape, that they cannot expect less than imprisonment,” Sir Harold Barrowdough said.