SUPREME COURT SITTINGS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 429, 11 February 1909, Page 8

SUPREME COURT SITTINGS.

v, (bT TEUEGEAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.);. . :• Ghrlstchurch. February 9..At .the Supreme Court William James was found guilty of breaking .and : entering;; abutcher s shop and stealing therefrom a:loin of mutton.- His record was; riot 'a good one;' there ; having been 'several previous convictions of theft. Accused had qualified for committment 'as .an habitual criminal, and his Honour, in sentencing.him ■ to;.two- years', imprisonment, .stated--- that;; if he appeared again before the Court he .would be:so committed. George Henry Barker' was found not. guilty of a charge of exposure.' -Similar charges against the same'accused will be heard to-morrow. '•,. : !''V. : '''.' :" , ..;'..' ; ;//-'r , ''-".:Chris.tohurpliV,Febriiary..io.- ■ 1 At the Supreme .Court., to-day, : 'George. Henry Barker .was found guilty on five counts charging him with sex offences in Fendaltoii, between September 24 '..arid S. Prisoner gave his ago its. 25. .The, Crown Prosecutor stated, that all. that, was known about him' was that he, had been in the. district' for only a few months. .Mr.. Justice Deriniston; hi:'.-sentencing .'.prisoner'' to twenty months' imprisonment, said that the"offence of which prisoner had been, found. guilty was the result,"to. some extent, of something in the nature of a disease,, but a.disease which rendered prisoner a menace; to. society, and it was His Honour's duty_ to see that prisoner was locked up for some time in the hope that confinement and. wholesome surroundings might effect some change.. The Criminal Sittings have.now .closed. - ; <-:,: ..,'; Aupkland, February 9. :In the Supreme .Court,., Arthur Gossett, charged with the theft of-£IBO from his employers, Heather,'Robertson and Co., was sentenced to twelve months', 'imprisonment. Austin Dunbar,, for. horse-stealing';: was sentenced ... to, eighteen .mouths' imprisonment, and Thomas.. Pearce, for forgery and.'uttering at Aratapu, to two years' imprisonment. Pearco was also declared an habitual offender.