SUPREME COURT Attempted Rape Charge: Accused Found Insane

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31360, 4 May 1967, Page 8

SUPREME COURT Attempted Rape Charge: Accused Found Insane

In a case which the Crown Prosecutor (Mr C. M. Roper) described as “sounding incrediHe,” a 25-year-old workman, John Henry Melhopt (Mr M. J. Glue) stood trial in the Supreme Court yesterday charged with having attempted to rape a baby girl 20 months of age. The incident occurred, according to unchallenged evidence called by the Crown, during a Saturday afternoon gathering on a farm at Broadfield, where a large number of people were attending a hangi. Melhopt had taken the child into a garage, and was discovered with her there lying behind an old sofa. On behalf of Melhopt, who pleaded not guilty, it was put forward that, although fit to plead, he had not understood the nature and quality of the act he had committed, or that It was morally wrong—a defence accepted by the jury, which found Melhopt not guilty on the ground of insanity. Medical Evidence In medical evidence for the defence, Dr. J. A. Begg and Dr. G. A. Shanks, of Sunnyside Hospital, both said that Melhopt suffered from feeblemindedness, with schizophrenic features and sexual deviation, and was certifiable. His intelligence quotent was 66, putting him in the class of “feebleminded,” and his mental age that of an eight-year-old child. Their evidence was 'challenged by the Crown on the suggested ground that Melhopt must have appreciated the nature of his action, and known that it was morally wrong, in that he had taken the child into a garage and lain behind a sofa—a place of concealment. Dr. Begg said that Melhopt would know that people would not approve of his action—hence his desire for concealment—but he would not understand why. Counsel’s Address Mr Glue, in asking the jury for a verdict of not guilty on

the ground of insanity, said: “Just as a dog fears punishment and hides himself away, so did this poor unfortunate wretch, but as to the moral rights and wrongs of his action he had no knowledge.” Mr Glue reminded the jury that the Crown had called no medical evidence in rebuttal of the defence case. Mr Justice Wilson, In summing up, said that the accused, in putting forward a defence of insanity, was not required to prove it beyond reasonable doubt—only that it was more probable than not that at the time of the incident he had been insane. His Honour, on the jury’s verdict, ordered that Melhopt be detained in strict custody at Sunnyside Hospital until the pleasure of the Minister of Justice is known.