POLICE WITNESSES

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 45, 21 February 1918, Page 8

POLICE WITNESSES

QUESTION OF' CBEDIBILITY.

"That is why the boy is dishonest. You have been "putting him up. to tell falsehoods. The reason tho boy is here is that he has had no proper example from you,'-' said Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., at Petone to-day, to a father who denied that his son, in his presence and in the presence of the police, had made an admission of the theft of\ some fowls. Two police constables had given evidence as to the statements made. In giving judgment the Magistrate said: "This is a question I am often confronted with. The police are a body of men w&o have been selected with great care .from respectable members of the community. Their object is not to harass the. public, but to detect crime. I am. faced in the Court with a blank deniali of the police evidence by interested parties. A constable may sometimes speak an untruth, but the occasions are very rare. Unless the Court is prepared to accept the evidence of constables, even' when it is contradicted by interested parties, crime would go'unpunished. In'this case, if the father'cannot see theft hi the action of the boy, it is evident that he cannot distinguish between' right and wrong, and the reason the boy is here to-day is that bis father has not taught him properly."