PREVENTIVE DETENTION

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 21

PREVENTIVE DETENTION

Sexual offence on boy A sentence of preventive detention a minimum of seven years imprisonment—was imposed in the Supreme Court yesterday on Dennis Patrick Harper, aged 34, a factory hand, for indecently assaulting a boy aged 14. Harper had pleaded guilty to the charge in the Magistrate’s Court, but the Magistrate declined jurisdiction and committed him to the Supreme Court for sentence. Mr D. H. P. Dawson, for Harper, said that the only sentences open to the Court were preventive detention or a substantial finite term of imprisonment. He asked that, despite Harper’s long list of convictions for the same type of offence, a finite term be imposed. Harper needed psychiatric help, he said. For the Crown, Mr G. K. Panckhurst said that the offence was worse than those previously committed by Harper. He was a person of low intelligence and the appropriate sentence would be preventive detention. The welfare of society was the paramount consideration. “The records show that since you were 18 you have appeared before the Court on eight occasions for indecent assaults on males and that you have been imprisoned on five occasions,” Mr Justice Macarthur said.

“This present offence is in line with previous offences, except it might be regarded as even worse. “After the most careful consideration I am satisfied that it is expedient for the protection of the public that you should be detained in custody for a substantial period,” his Honour said.