Bizarre plan for sex offences

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 17

Bizarre plan for sex offences

A man before the> Court had set out on al deliberate and bizarre | plan to induce a young’ girl to have sexual relations with hint, said! Mr Justice Casey in the Supreme Court yesterday.

The prisoner, George Her-' bert McNicholl, aged 54. a! railway porter, had done' this by pretending to have: contact with a dead relative: of the girl and by making out that that relative wanted [ her to indulge in such activi[ties to help -cure a medical [condition, his Honour said. He sentenced McNicholl to' [two years imprisonment on I six charges of indecent as-, sault on a girl, aged 14, between February and March of this year. The name of the girl was suppressed. Mr S. P. Graham, for the prisoner, said that he need not emphasise the tragic aspects of the case. McNicholl was a man decent, honest, and hard working all his life, but now facing charges of this sort. It seemed that his offending stemmed from psychological problems. It was clear that his family situation had never been a happy one, and that tensions had caused problems of sexual adjustment.

For the last 11 years, McNicholl had been stationed at Arthur's Pass, where he was thought of as a responsible and reliable worker and was well liked by the people of the township. Many of the residents found it 'almost impossible to believe that he could be guilty of this type of offending. He had been an upright and moral person in all other respects. McNicholl was fearful for his future — he was cut off (from his family, his children ; were hostile towards him, and he could be isolated i from his friends at Arthur's ■ Pass, Mr Graham said. “I have no doubt that you iare deeply ashamed and ! filled with remorse for what ■you have done," his Honour j said. “You took advantage of a defenceless young girl in a position in which you should have been her protector and guide. I find nothing in the probation officer’s report to explain or excuse this conduct.” It was to McNicholl’s credit that he had faced his responsibilities and had changed his plea to guilty rather than put the girl to the shame and embarrassment of a court appearance, his Honour said.