Lot of good in younger generation—Sir Desmond

Press, 2 January 1985, Page 4

Lot of good in younger generation —Sir Desmond

PA Wellington Chief Judge Sullivan has seen thousands of offenders pass through his courts, but the new Knight Bachelor says today’s young people are a better breed than his own generation. Sir Desmond has been Chief District Court Judge since 1979 and was appointed a stipendiary magistrate in 1966. Until his retirement next year he is the administrative head of New Zealand’s 87 district judges. Relaxing at his home with Lady Phyllis and his six grandchildren, Sir Desmond said that during the last four years he had adjudicated in every one of the 21 courts that handled 85 per cent of the country’s criminal cases.

And the constant stream of offenders does not wear him down. “Depressing? No, you’ve got to have hope in the younger generation. There's a lot of good in them,” said Sir Desmond who was born in Timaru and studied law at Canterbury University before practising on the West Coast and Palmerston North. “The majority of young people are pretty good. They’ve more social consciousness and awareness than my generation did. “It is repetitive. It is another generation with different names but the same offences. “But a lot of kids don’t have a show because of the home environment they are

pushed out of. If we could do something for stronger family ties.” Sir Desmond said that offenders with strong family or social support seldom appeared in court a second time. Judges had few worries about retaliation from the people they convicted. “They don’t blame the judge, they blame their own lawyers. They accept you’re carrying out a task that someone had to do.” Sir Desmond is the chairman of the Film Trade Board, the State Services and Related Tribunals, Recreation and Sports Council and Arohata Borstal Parole Board and deputy chairman of the Cinematograph Film Censorship Board of Appeal.