Judge defers sentence

Press, 18 December 1976, Page 4

Judge defers sentence

A woman who swore in the witness box that a man charged with driving while disqualified in Southland was in Christchurch at the time of the offence, was given a deferred sentence on a charge of perjury by Mr Justice Somers in the Supreme Court yesterday. The woman; Beti Strahan, aged 25, a part-time mushroom picker, pleaded guilty on arraignment to a charge that, on September 9, during the hearing of a charge against Kenneth Ashley McCallum of driving while disqualified, she falsely swore that at the time of the offence he was in Christchurch.

. Miss J. M. Drake, for Strahan, said that the offence would not have occurred if Strahan had not fallen in with the wrong people during a stressful period after she parted from her husband, who had returned to Australia. She met her co-offenders at the Addington motor camp, where she was staying with her small daughter.

Mrs Strahan had been reluctant to fall in with the others in the offence, but she was subjected to pressure, and stupidly agreed. This was her first offence, and she was the only one charged, as her co-offenders

had left the country. A custodial sentence would be very hard on the young daughter, Miss Drake said. His Honour said that Strahan swore that a man was in Christchurch when he was not. She knew now that it was a serious offence.

"The proper administration of justice depends on persons telling the truth when they give evidence,” said his Honour-

He accepted that the offence was committed when Strahan was under stress, that her dominant motive was a protective instinct towards her child, and that she had never before offended.