Borstal training

Press, 22 August 1979, Page 4

Borstal training

PA Wellington Mature men had an obligation to see that confrontation leading to violence did not happen, said Mr Justice Jeffries in the Supreme Court at Wellington, when sentencing Law, rence Mathew Gerald Hall, aged 17, to Borstal training on a charge of man* daiiahtAF Hall had been found not guilty by a jury of the murder of lan James Hogg but guilty of manslaughter.

The charge arose from an incident outside the Dominion Tavern on the evening of May 8, when Hall drove a car at Mr Hogg causing fatal head injuries. The accused had a real history of deprivation, said his counsel (Mr G. L. Turkington). His father died when he was nine and he had “stumbled into an array of associates,” some helpful and some not so helpful. Recently, Hall had been forced into a lifestyle beyond his years. In the evening in question, as a 16-year-old he had been taken by mature adults to a hotel, where he drank until closing time. The incident had had a considerable effect on him, and his contrition could enhance his maturity by causing him to reflect on his lifestyle, said Mr Tur* kington. The jury’s verdict had vindicated Hall’s statement to the police that he had had no intention either to kill or maim Mr Hogg, he said.