CRIMINAL SITTINGS.
WELLINGTON. William Knox, who was found guilty of performing an illegal operation, was to-day sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labor. The Chief Justice, in sentencing the prisoner (who has a wife and two children), said there was no evidence that Knox had been guilty of the crime in n systematic manner, otherwise the sentence would have been much more severe. Some girls appeared to think that it was more shameful to give birth to an illegitimate child than to undergo an operation of the class in question. It was unfortunate for girls if they fell away, hut it was a thousand times better that they should have illegitimate children than submit to operations of this kind. Society should acknowledge that the Legislature had recognised the gravity' of this crime by making it punishable by imprisonment for life. Had it not been for the rule so laid clown, His Honor said, he might have been inclined to lower the sentence, but, looking at all the circumstances, he did not think he could.
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Evening Star, Issue 15032, 14 November 1912, Page 6
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175CRIMINAL SITTINGS. Evening Star, Issue 15032, 14 November 1912, Page 6
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