3 1/2 years jail on 22 charges

Press, 2 August 1985, Page 7

3 1/2 years jail on 22 charges

Wayne Michael Charnley, aged 21, an unemployed labourer, was jailed for 3Vz years when sentenced by Mr justice Holland in the High Court yesterday. His Honour imposed sentences of 2% years jail on each of five sex offences involving girls aged five, seven, and nine years, the terms concurrent with one another, and a year’s jail on each of 17 offences of false pretence, the terms concurrent with one another but cumulative on the head sentence. The offences occurred between March 1 and April 8. Mr E. T. Higgins

appeared for Charnley and Mr T. J. G. Allan for the Crown. His Honour, when sentencing Charnley said that there were no indication from any of the reports he had received that psychiatric hospital treatment would be of any great benefit. He would have liked to think that there was a place between a mental hospital and a prison where Charnlev could be looked after, blit there was not. His Honour said that he owed some obligation to the parents of young children to see that they were protected. Later in the District

Court before Judge Bisphan, Charnley admitted escaping from Sunnyside Hospital last Saturday. He had done so because of threats made against him by another patient, said counsel, Mr Higgins. Charnley was convicted and jailed for six months. The Judge said that in view of the prison sentence of 3Vz years imposed on Charnley in the High Court, earlier, the sentence he imposed would be concurrent. Sergeant McCormick said that Charnley had been remanded to Sunnyside Hospital from the High Court for further psychiatric assessment. At 10 a.m. last More court news Page 22

Saturday he left the hospital, without permission, with another person. He was found in a house in Sydenham next day and told the police he escaped because of threats made against him by another patient. 'Mr Higgins said the offences for which his client had been sentenced in the High Court “clearly upset certain sections of the community.” Another man charged with escaping from the hospital with Charnley, Ashley Goodman (Miss E. H. B. Thompson), was remanded in custody to August 8 so that a psychiatric examination can be completed.