T-shirt motif brings fine

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34000, 14 November 1975, Page 16

T-shirt motif brings fine

The managing director of a record shop who sold T-shirts with indecent motifs on them, was convicted and tined SlOO in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Delmar Hugh Richards aged 27, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of possessing for sale indecent documents, namely 55 printed Tshirts. , . Mr B. A. Palmer, S.M., had reserved his decision to yesterday.

, Sergeant R. H. Fronting appeared for the police, and Mr G. R. Lascelles for the defendant. The Magistrate said he found a prime facie case had been established against the defendant. Each T-shirt depicted on the chest area a young nude woman sitting on a record with her legs apart in a position “classical” of the masturbation position, said the Magistrate. The words. “Put muscle into your music,” also appeared on the front of the T-shirt. The connotations were “self-evident.” The Magistrate found that the T-shirt was indecent. . The T-shirts were an affront to accepted standards of decency, and the motifs were presented in such a way as to be injurious to the public good, he said. H e said he had carefully considered the other documents put forward by counsel, but these did not cause him to alter his conclusion that the T-shirts were indecent.

In evidence Richards said he had been managing director of "The Record Factory.” Colombo Street, for just over three years. The T-shirts had been ordered by him, and he had had the motifs put on them He acquired 100 of the shirts specifically for the promotion of his shop. They were Intended to attract the younger generation to the record industry, he said. The defendant Intended to give the shirts to touring bands and other people in the music industry. There were 55 of the T-shirts left. The majority of the others had been given away, and he had sold 12. The shirts were never on display for sale. People had seen others wearing the shirts and had come to the shop to ask for them. The defendant had been reluctant to sell them, as this was not the purpose he had them for.

They were sold «t cost price, said the defendant To Mr La* celles, he said a T-shirt of Ui»t quality would retail at $4.50 to $5 in other shops. It was the first time, to hie knowledge, that a record store had used T-shirts for promotion. Record promoters often used them.

To counsel, the defendant salt the expression, "Put muscle into your music,’’ was slang used by young people, meaning put volume or power into music. There was no intention in any way ithat the picture and slogan should be joined together. The defendant said he had seen worse photographs in newspapers, magazines, and on television He did not consider the motif Indecent. Most women who had seen the T-shirts thought It “quite a catchy idea.” He did not think the motif had an immoral tendency and had seen worse in Rl6 films in Christchurch. The motifs were “eye-catching” more than anvthlng else. They were not intended to be dirty or crude in any way. To Sergeant Prouting. tile defendant said he agreed the Tshirts would be worn in public. The Magistrate declined an application to suppress the defend* ant’s name.

The offence occurred through a gross error of judgment as to what was indecent. There was no profit motive, said the Magistrate

He made an order for destruction of the T-shirts after the time for an appeal had elapsed.