CRIMINAL APPEALS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 66, 18 March 1924, Page 8

CRIMINAL APPEALS

AN AUCKLAND CASE,

Ihe Appeal Court was engaged this morning m hearing an appeal in a criminal case, - The position was somewhat unusual in that the prisoner had not' been sentenced, the Judge having directed the jury to find the prisoner guilty formally, and having then referred the question of law to the Appeal Court. Prisoner was Arthur Alfred Bernard Barker, and he was tried on two charges of attempted indecent assault. On the hearing this morning Mr. Allan J. Moody (Auckland) represented the prisoner, and Mr. A. Fair represented the Grown. ■ . The admitted facts of the case were that prisoner wrote a letter to the lad, and met him. The letter was shown to the boy's father, and when the lad met prisoner he was accosted by a detective anil a policeman. Prisoner afterwards made a statement admitting intention to commit an offence. Mr. Moody submitted that the facts did not disclose the commission of an offence, while the Crown contended that, they did. Mr. Moody contended that mere intention was not criminal. This was what .the Court had to decide. Decision was reserved.