‘Distressing’ attack on woman

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 7

‘Distressing’ attack on woman

It was a distressing and! sad business when a young’ man. who had a long history;, of mental illness, enticed " a I woman, aged 25. to his flat,! threatened her with a knife,' forced her into bed and with) a knife at her throat at-) tempted to have intercourse,; Mr Justice Roper said in the High Court yesterday. His Honour jailed Bruce Gregory Thompson, aged 23, unemployed, for two years; on a charge of assaulting a woman with intent to rape on March 24. He was found guilty on the charge by a jury last week. Evidence was given at the trial that the offence was committed in an upstairs flat in Madras Street. Mr E. Tait, for Thompson,,

said that it was still difficult) to understand why the of-' fence happened. At the time Thompson was extremely; lonely, unhappy and de-; pressed. Thompson told the young"; woman that he wanted to goto jail. It was stated in the' psychiatrist’s report that he’ had given up a good job on, an Invercargill local body as, a rates supervisor and come; to Christchurch. He was in-) telligeni and had obtained) his University Entrance; examination under difficult, eircumstances. Because of frequent admission to psychiatric institutions Thompson was unable to -hold down a job, for any period. He had made numerous attempts at suicide. the first of which was' at the age of 12.

There were many bizarre features of the incident. He had turned to the woman for help with his problems which had been p/eying on his mind. The woman had feared that if Thompson had been! left on his own that he would commit suicide so she contacted Lifeline and Youthline. His actions on) that night alternated between violence and anger' and tears of remorse and regret for what he had done. , The whole matter still re-1 mainpd a puzzle to the present time. He was a first’ offender and had already) spent five months in cus-' tody, which had abated his desire to go to prison, said’ Mr Tait. His Honour said that it was a distressing and_sad

: i business, as Thompson’s i counsel had said. ■i “You seem to be an ini soluble problem to the .medical profession and to ’ me on sentencing,” said his Honour. He had to bear in mind that Thompson had got the girl, a distant relation, to his flat, threatened her with a ; knife, eventually forced her ■; to undress, got into bed with her with a knife at her throat and attempted to ■ have intercourse with her. I That went on for something like two hours and it finished with Thompson ask- ) ing for forgiveness and to 'the girl’s credit she tried to get help for him from Lifeline and Youthline. “On the evidence the girl emerges as a_pretty_level-headed person

and I would not think she would suffer any lasting effects from this business,” his Honour said. He was .concerned because) the psychiatrist said that al-l though Thompson suffered from a psychotic problem or; mental illness his state was) such that it would lead to) further destructive behav-? iour to himself and others) unless he was given psy-l chiatric treatment. ) Although Thompson had no previous convictions this’ was a case where imprisonment had to be imposed and the term would be two years. His Honour directed that the medical report, be sent to the prison authorities with a very strong recommendation that he undergo psychiatric treatment. J