DISPOSAL OF CHILD’S BODY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 111, 4 February 1941, Page 8

DISPOSAL OF CHILD’S BODY

Year’s Probation Granted Dominion Special Service.

PALMERSTON N., February 3

Pleas of guilty were entered by Cecil Roy Plumb, aged 26, in the Supreme Court today, to charges that on October 17 in Palmerston North he used an instrument with intent to procure a certain result, and that on October 19 he disposed of the body of a child with intent to conceal its birth. Plumb was admitted to probation for one year. Counsel, Mr. J. M. Gordon, said prisoner had always borne an exemplary character. He outlined certain circumstances which had arisen in the case and made a strong plea for leniency. Plumb had made an extraordinarily frank statement to the police, said counsel, and without this statement the police might have had great difficulty in proving the case against him. His Honour said it was a miracle that the young woman had not died of complications following the act. Prisoner had just blundered ahead, not realizing the appalling danger in which he was placing her. Probation was almost unheard of in cases as serious as this. However, his Honour said he had been impressed by counsel’s representations, and there were other factors which his Honour mentioned.