NEW TRIAL ORDERED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 9

NEW TRIAL ORDERED

Youths Under Sentence Of Death (Received May 18, 8.25 p.m.) Sydney, May 18. The Court of Criminal Appeal set aside the conviction of the six youths sentenced to death in connection with the Parramatta case and ordered a new trial. The Chief Justice said that there was at least a possibility that tlie jury .had been under a misapprehension and had assumed to some extent that the accused had to prove consent. In the Criminal Court at Sydney on May 17 six young men, whose ages ranged from 16 to 20, were found guilty of a capital assault on a young Italian woman in Parramatta Park on the night of January 3. Mr. Justice Stephen sentenced the six to death, and a seventh, aged 15, was convicted of indecent assault and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. When the jury's decision was announced a number of women relatives screamed and created an unprecedented scene. Five of them collapsed on the floor of the court and were removed in an ambulance. The defence by all the youths was that the woman, who was unable to speak a word of English, was a consenting party. The youths were Henry Rowe, aged 20, George Thornley, aged 18, Harold Thornley, aged 16, Harold Moloney, aged 19, Percival Tovey, aged 17, and Rupert Cowell, nged 16. The Appeal Court on Friday dealt with the appeal of Charles Bennett, aged 15, who received three years’ imprisonment. The court upheld Bennett’s appeal and quashed the conviction on the ground that there was no satisfactory evidence, even of an attempt at assault.