Couple kept brothel

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33435, 17 January 1974, Page 3

Couple kept brothel

GV.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, January 16. A middle - aged couple with 10 grandchildren kept a brothel in a Hamilton flat, the Hamilton Magistrate's Court heard today. Both pleaded guilty to the charges before Mr J. E. Miliar, S.M.. and were each fined ■s2so and ordered to pay costs of SIOO. Mr Millar suppressed the names of the two defendants, a 53-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man. The man’s I occupation was also suppressed. The pair advertised in an ‘“adult contact journal” last month, and when an Auckland vice squad detective answered the advertisement, ,the woman indicated to him

that she would have sexual intercourse for payment, the police prosecutor (Sergeant W. R. Goodison) told the Court. / constable called at the defendants’ address on January 8, after arranging a contact, and the woman said it would cost the constable S2O. When interviewed by the police both admitted advertising in the magazine. The i police were told the couple shad received two other replies. Counsel, Mr W. J. Scotter, said there was no suggestion of corruption in these charges. “Anyone who would pay $6 for a subscription to the magazine is well past the happy age of innocence,” he said. The couple were shy. reserved people and were lonely, with no outside interests, either sporting or cultural. I “Advertising and answer-

ing similar advertisements, they soon found that they had something in common with others — that was sex.” The money gained by the wife was to be used to buy clothes, Mr Scotter said. The Magistrate agreed with counsel the important aspect of the case was whether to suppress their names. “I don’t see why the (children should be humiliated jby the publication of the parents’ names,” he said. “I am still not sure it is in the public interest not to allow publication. My decision is a very narrow one, and I do it with a great deal of hesitation and doubt. “This sorry middle-aged pair have no sympathy from me.” the Magistrate said. He proposed to make the fine “quite substantial.” “Perhaps they will now make an attempt to climb back out of the gutter and behave like responsible, .decent citizens,’’ he said.