Probation for youth who stabbed cyclist

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 5

Probation for youth who stabbed cyclist

A youth who stabbed a youns woman cyclist in the back was placed on probation for two years when he appeared for sentence in the High Court yesterday. In imposing sentence Mr Justice Cook directed that the accused, Stephen James Churcher, aged 18, unemployed, undergo such psychiatric or psychological treatment as the probation officer considers desirable.

The accused stabbed the woman complainant in the back as she was cycling home in Papanui on the evening of April 10. He had pleaded guilty in the District Court to a charge of wounding with intent to injure, and had been committed to the High Court for sentence. His Honour referred to the tragedy of the accused’s early family life. He accepted that the accused had no real intention of hurting the

woman, and had shown remorse afterwards. The attack had been “some strange outbreak, some crisis point which is difficult for others to understand,” his Honour said.

Mr D. J. L. Saunders, for the Crown, said the complainant had been discharged from hospital and suffered no permanent injury. She had made a good recovery from the attack. Mr G. H. Nation, for the accused, submitted in mitigation that the accused had not been involved in violence before. The probation report stated that he did not impress as a deliberately bad person, but one in need of affection, security, and encouragement. The accused had had a troubled childhood, and at the time of the offence he was “psychologically a very disturbed boy.” At the time of the attack the accused had

grossly diminished responsibility and was incapable, because of his psychological problems, of exercising the choice that was required and expected of normal persons, said Mr Nation.

He sought a “constructive” sentence rather than deterrent to give Churcher the benefit of probation, and psychiatric counselling. His Honour said the circumstances of the offence were strange and difficult to understand. There was no logical reason for the attack.

He noted the tragedy of the accused’s childhood, with his father’s desertion of the family and his mother’s ill health, necessitating the accused’s spending most of his life in institutions and foster homes. His Honour said the accused, although fit to plead, was in need of treatment.