Young transvestite a ‘menace to society’

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 36

Young transvestite a ‘menace to society’

PA Auckland A transvestite convicted in the District Court at Auckland of robbing women in their homes at knifepoint was called “a menace to society”. The youth who, according to his counsel, Mr Robert Ludbrook, saw himself as a woman and lived in a “twilight world of transvestism, solvent abuse, and crime” was jailed for 2 1/2 years. He admitted robbing four women in their homes, threatening two with a knife, and in one case ripped rings from the fingers of a victim aged 58. The youth, aged 16, also pleaded guilty to unlawfully getting into and converting two cars, damaging a public reserve, shoplifting, and offering his body for prostitution. Judge Lawson told the youth, whose name was suppressed because of his

age, that he was a menace to society. To protect society, and to give the youth plenty of time to consider whether he wanted to continue a life of crime, the Judge sentenced him to serve his time in a youth prison. The Judge said the four robberies were committed in Glen Innes, East Auckland, earlier in August and in July.

Two robberies involved co-offenders, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, but the youth was clearly the instigator of the crimes, said the Judge. All three youths initially appeared in the Children and Young Persons Court, but the boy and girl have yet to appear in the District Court. The Court had heard that a 58-year-old woman was robbed of $1596 worth of jewellery and $23 after the youth and

the 14-year-old boy burst into her home at 7.15 p.m. The boy asked to use the woman’s telephone, then grabbed her by the face and neck and pushed her backwards into her flat. The youth, who had been hiding outside, rushed in, and grabbed a knife from the kitchen, the Court was told. He pointed the knife, concealed up his sleeve, at the woman, and told her to shut up and do as she was told. The rings were then wrenched from her fingers, and her bedroom ransacked for more jewellery. When apprehended by the police, the youth said he committed the robberies for food, alcohol and solvents, “something to sniff.” The Judge said that unlike many offenders the youth had had the benefit of a stable, caring, and supportive upbringing. A deterrent sentence was required to punish him, and to deter any of his associates or others, that might consider similar crimes.