Student Act “Offensive”

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 13

Student Act “Offensive”

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter — Copyright.) MELBOURNE, Aug. 9. A practising Roman Catholic who played the part of Pontius Pilate in a university mock crucifixion last Easter is one of 14 students, including three girls, found guilty in a suburban Melbourne court yesterday of offensive behaviour, and put on goodbehaviour bonds for 12 months.

The magistrate held that the students did not intend to shock the public into thinking about Easter by a serious enactment, but rather by making it a joke and prank. Australia, he said, is predominantly a Christian country. “The Crucifixion is one of the foundations of Christian religion and a bastion of the faith.”

During the hearing, defence counsel screened a black-and-white film of the mock crucifixion—which took place on Maundy Thursday at Monash University, Melbourne. The film lasted for about a minute, and showed a man in a loin cloth carrying a cross to a rock pile. .He was being whipped with rope. One of the defendants, John Charles Varney, told the court he was ' a practising Roman Catholic, who went to Mass every Sunday and on feast days, and was anxious to see people take an interest in religion. The magistrate said it did not matter if the students’ motives were high and their intentions good. “If an act is offensive, the motive and intention are immaterial,” he said.