ABORTION CASE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 127, 24 February 1944, Page 6

ABORTION CASE

Woman Sentenced To Four Years’ Hard Labour Florence May Radcliffe, domestic, aged 39, who was found guilty by a jury last week on four counts of unlawfully using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage, was sentenced by the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) m the Supreme Court, Wellington, ,yesterday to four years’ imprisonment at hard labour on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. When prisoner appeared at 10 a.m. yesterday, Mr. R. E. Harding, who, with Mr. R. R. Scott, appeared for prisoner, applied for a reservation of sentence fall tile opinion of the Court of Appeal had been obtained on questions which had already been made to the Court. Upon the Court resuming at noon, his Honour said the statement submitted did not seem to raise any specific questions of law at all. If counsel had been able to satisfy him that there was any reasonable doubt as to his directions to the jury he would not have hesitated to state a case for the Court of Appeal. Nothing had been said in Chambers to satisfy him that there was any doubt as to what had been said or done at the trial. His sumniin"- up. in fact, had been too favourable to accused. “I think no ground and no specific point has been urged upon.me in which I would be justified in stating a case, and I must, therefore, refuse to grant the application,” said his Honour. . Mr. Scott, in making a plea for leniency, said prisoner had a reputation for helping single girls in their confinement and arranging for the adoption of their children. This showed that she .had in her character the virtues of charity and benevolence. She had been led into committing these crimes by her intention to help girls in their confinement. In every case, with one exception, pregnancy had been conceived out of wedlock; there was no suggestion that she had. aborted anyone who should have had children. His Honour: The- difficulty I have is that this is not an isolated case; here was traffic being carried on, and not a small one. Mr. Scott said there was no suggestion that prisoner was a menace to those who went through her hands. This was a serious crime, but he urged that this case could be distinguished from others where life had been endangered. Prisoner had not been guided solely by the acquisition of filthy lucre; every one of the women concerned spoke of the care she had taken/ of them. She was a widow of 13 years’ standing, and had brought up sons of 17 and 14 years to be a credit to her. Addressing prisoner, his Honour said the jury had found her guilty on four charges. The case had been so clear that no conscientious jury could have found otherwise. The jury, indeed, had shown itself merciful, ns they had acquitted her on three counts. “The mass of evidence in the case shows that you have been carrying on a very loathsome business, and that you have been carrying it. on extensively,” concluded the Chief Justice.