Ten Years For Raping Child

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 3

Ten Years For Raping Child

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 17. Sexual crimes accompanied by violence, particularly against young children, evoke a deep public emotion and understandably so, the Chief Justice (Sir Richard Wild) said today.

His Honour sentenced Albert Edwin Wilson, aged 23, a driver, to 10 years’ imprisonment on a charge of rape of a 10 - year - old spastic girl.

Wilson had been found guilty of the offence by a jury in the Supreme Court at Napier. His Honour directed that Wilson be given psychiatric treatment while in prison.

He said it was well known that lately there had been grave concern as to the appropriate measure of punishment for child rape. It was the function of the courts, within the limits set by Parliament, to impose a sentence appropriate to a particular case and to the offender. No two cases were the same, but judges had the fullest knowledge of each case. Judges had reports by skilled probation officers and would call for any other information they thought that justice required, he said.

“Your victim was a 10-year-old with cerebral palsy and handicapped in her speech and movements, though it is fair to say that fact may not have been apparent to you,” his Honour told Wilson.

“From a physical point of view she will return to normal, but all her years she will carry a fear of physical violence.

“One would have thought that a sexual offence was quite out of character for you, but the psychiatrist says that for over 10 years you have suffered sexual fantasies concerning young girls."