SUPREME COURT Man Gaoled For Four Years For Bad Case” Of Rape

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 19

SUPREME COURT Man Gaoled For Four Years For Bad Case” Of Rape

Rape committed by Ernest James Brown, aged 27, a glassworker, on an 18-year-old girl whom he had prevailed on to accept a lift home in his car was a bad case of its kind, said Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court yesterday. Brown, after being told that the deterrent element must loom large in his sentence, was imprisoned for four years. His Honour said he took account of submissions by counsel, Mr M. J. Glue, that Brown, apart from some trouble with liquor, had an otherwise good record, and that his young wife was determined to stand by him. “But I am left with the conclusion that imprisonment in this case must be substantial," his Honour said.

“This must be regarded as a bad case of its kind,” he told Brown. “The girl offered you no encouragement, but you managed to induce her to get into your car. You then drove her to a lonely place and frightened her into submission.

“The Court has a duty to protect girls from this kind of offence,” his Honour said. “The public interest demands that the deterrent element must .receive full recognition when punishment is imposed.” Attack On Wife The seriousness of an attack on his wife with a hearth shovel by Douglas Ayson Bain, aged 34, a kitchen-hand, precluded any suggestion of probation, said his Honour, before sentencing Bain to two years’ imprisonment. Bain was convicted after trial by jury last week of assault on his wife with intent to injure, but with a recommendation to mercy. Bain’s counsel, Mr R. F. B. Perry, made submissions at length, during which he said that Bain had been an alcoholic from a very early age, but had shown signs of responding to supervision in the past, and might therefore be released on substantial probation.

His Honour: I will-say this straight away—it is quite impossible to accede to any suggestion of probation. It is in this man’s own interest that he be kept away from liquor for a period, Mr Perry, in urging leniency for Bain, had said that he had suffered more than his share of misfortune in life. Twenty years ago, he had lost a leg in a motorcycle accident Five years ago, his home in Ashburton had been burned down, with the loss of £lOOO worth of furniture and fillings, uninsured. “Of course, I can’t submit that his misfortunes are not partly of his own making,” Mr Perry said.

Indulgence in liquor had led to some previous offences against the law, and many upsets in Bain's marriage. However, Bain was determined to give up drink, and his wife was willing to effect a reconciliation.

Mr Perry asked his Honour to give weight to the jury’s

recommendation to mercy, and that Bain had already “done penance” during four months and a half in custody. His Honour said that Bain’s emotional state, weakened by alcoholism, could explain the assault on his wife, but could not excuse it “It cannot but be regarded as serious.” his Honour told Bain. “You attacked your wife with a small shovel, beating her over the head, so that she suffered serious cuts. She was about a week in hospital—but fortunately, made a remarkable recovery.” The appropriate sentence, said his Honour, was two years’ imprisonment. 18 Months’ Imprisonment Anzav Robert Williams, a 23-year-old workman described by his counsel as “a young man without direction or backbone,” was sentenced to 18 months* imprisonment

for forgery of a bank withdrawal slip. His Honour noted that Williams had been imprisoned for nine months for a similar offence only a year ago. He warned him that only his youth had saved him from a very long sentence. “Various courts have tried to give you every possible assistance by way of training and supervision, but all to no purpose,” his Honour told Williams. "The sentence now must be such as to bring home to you that if you continue with offences of this nature, you will receive very substantial imprisonment—and indeed, finish up with preventive detention.”

Counsel, Mr J. R. Milligan, had said that Williams had had various types of institutional training but had not been “shaking loose” of the drifting life he had been leading.