FOUR YEARS’ JAIL FOR MANSLAUGHTER

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 256, 27 July 1939, Page 6

FOUR YEARS’ JAIL FOR MANSLAUGHTER

Sentence Imposed On Paki RECKLESS DRIVING OF MOTOR-CAR By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 26. “His conduct resulted in the death of a young married woman on the threshold of life and left her two children motherless,” said Mr. Justice Fair in the Supreme Court today in sentencing to four years’ imprisonment William Pera Paki, a Maori, who was found guilty of the manslaughter of Mrs. Annie Evelyn Marsh, at Okaihau, as the result of reckless motoring and a collision with a motor-car driven by Mrs. Marsh. Mr. Noble pleaded Paki’s youth (he is 25 years of age) and said that he had not the sense of responsibility that might be expected of a white man. He had conceived the mad idea that driving a car at great speed past the house where his wife was might cause his wife to become frightened for the little boy’s safety and agree to live with him again. The prisoner could only throw himself on the Court’s mercy for the terrible result of his recklessness. Mr. Justice Fair said that the jury brought in the only verdict open to them on the evidence in finding the prisoner guilty of manslaughter. The evidence showed that he drove four times through the township of Okaihau at a speed exceeding 70 miles an hour, showing a criminal disregard not only for the life of his own son, who was in the car, but for the lives of persons on the roadway. His recklessness was not the result of a sudden impulse, but was deliberate and wilful, as was indicated by the fact that he tried to borrow two separate cars before he took the one he did. “I realize that he is a young man and that members of the Maori race cannot be expected to exercise the same judgment in controlling themselves as a pakeha, but after considering fhese factors the offence remains a very bad one and an exemplary sentence must be imposed.” Paki was sentenced to four years' Imprisonment for manslaughter, eighteen months for causing bodily harm to his son and reckless driving, and six months for attempted suicide, the sentences to be concurrent.