Attack on sleeping wife results in probation

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 5

Attack on sleeping wife results in probation

An alcoholic unemployed; seaman, who put a pillow I over his sleeping wife's face and punched her about thehead and face, was put on probation for two years by! Mr Justice Roper in the! High Court yesterday. His Honour also ordered/ Samuel Knox Spears Wilson,!’ aged 44, not to attempt top communicate with his wife, I Wilson was found not!; guilty by a jury on a charge!' of attempting to murder Va-.l lerie June Wilson at Lyttel-j ton on October 13. The jury:; found him guilty on the!; alternative charge of assault- jj ing his wife with intent to! injure. . < Messrs B. McClelland. ; Q.C.. and his son, M. F. : McClelland, appeared for ; Wilson, and Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the 1 Crown. ; Evidence was given that Wilson, who had been drink-11 ing, went to his wife’s home! in Oxford Street, Lyttelton,!! and attacked her as she lay i asleep. They had been separ-;’ ated for some months. |< Mr B. McClelland said; 1 that Wilson had spent about!, two months in custody after!i his arrest, and that after his release on bail lived on a}] farm near Methven. As he;’ had no tranpsort he had-i been unable to work andhad been on the unemployed' benefit for a long period. A letter had been received;; from the Seamen’s Union!; stating that if Wilson was . not imprisoned he might be able to get work as a sea- 1 man within a short time.

As was obvious from the photographs which had been) produced during the trial; Wilson had been given some! rough summary justice by! (his wife’s son by a former( marriage. Wilson now! accepted that his marriage' was at an end and that his wife wanted no further part of him, Mr McClelland said. His Honour said that the jury’s verdict left a rather! curious situation. If Wilson had been found guilty of attempted murder as charged a substantial term of imprisonment would have been justified. “But the jury’s rejection of the attempted murder charge means that I must now sentence you simply for an assault which by its very nature was really incapable of causing any serious injury and indeed no serious injury was caused,” his Honour said. Other factors to be taken into account were that Wilson had no previous convictions, had been in custody for two months, was a diabetic requiring daily injections and an alcoholic of many years standing. “You are in the present predicament because you! wouldn’t accept that y'ourj marriage was at an end," but! apparently you do now!' accept that. It is also important that work is prob-j ably now available to you. It; is not an easy decision but I think in the circumstances a custodial sentence is not called fbr,” said his Honour.