CRIMINAL SITTINGS

Evening Star, Issue 20321, 1 November 1929, Page 11

CRIMINAL SITTINGS

DUNEDIN Tho criminal sittings were continued this morning before Mr Justice Kennedy, TOMAHAWK CRIB CASE, As a sequel to an alleged party at Tomahawk, Hemi Wiwi Notini alias Dick Naughton or M'Naughton was charged with unlawful carnal knowledge, and, alternatively, with indecent assault. Mr F. B. Adams appeared for the Crown.* Accused, who pleaded not guilty, was represented by Mr E. J. Anderson. The Crown Prosecutor said the case was a short and simple one. The accused was,charged on two counts, both of •which referred to the one matter. The charges—one of unlawful carnal knowledge and one'of indecent assault —were alternative, and the Crown invited the jury to convict on the charge of carnal knowledge. The girl with respect to whom accused was charged was under the age of sixteen at the time, and the alleged offence was committed only a few days before she reached sixteen. The accused rvas not entitled to rely upon the defence of the consent of the girl. “The case is rather a disgraceful one,” continued Mr Adams. It arose in connection with a crib at Tomahawk. On cases such as these depended the administration of the law and the cleaning up of such places as Tomahawk and the city generally. The case was therefore one of importance in that respect. Possibly the 11117 might feel that the girls in the case were not entitled to much consideration, hut they must not lightly give way to such considerations. The jury would have to be satisfied that the evidence of the girls was true; and. though the law did not require corroboration, they would naturally look to see if there was corroboration. Learned counsel went on to detail how the accused, with another man and two girls, drove in a car to the crib at Tomahawk, where the alleged offence took place. Dr A. J. C. Hanan, house surgeon at the Public Hospital, said he had examined the girl, and found her to be suffering from a certain disease. Shebad been interfered with. The mother of the girl said she was born on June 12, 1913. Two days before she reached sixteen '-ears she was npnrc v, cr'd°d by th° poliop. To Mr Anderson: She thought th« drl was wo-king during the week, although she I*’ter found that belie! to be wrong. The friri Wt home, and was later apprehended" at Brighton by the police. - The girl, who is now in the Burwood Horae, Christchurch, said she met the accused at the "Winter Show in Dun-

edin, when she was tvith M’Crombie and two girls. They left the show about 10 o’clock, and a car pulled up in front of them. The driver was accused, who was on “ the chocolate department ”of tho show. Accused was accompanied by another man. They got into the car with the intention of being driven home. After having refreshments at the jiie cart they went to an hotel, where liquor was procured. The men returned with two bottles of cocktail, wine, and beer, and they went out to Tomahawk. She and her girl friend suggested that the party should go to the crib. She had no right to go to the crib. .They all had some liquor. She detailed what later happened at the crib.

To Mr Anderson: Accused did not know where the crib was, as he was a stranger. She admitted being at the crib on previous days. She accompanied the Lawless brothers and a man named M'Donald to the crib two or three days before going there with M‘Naugliton. She admitted impropriety on that occasion. Sho was lying when she said in the lower court that she was drunk on the night of June 6 and had to be helped into the room by another girl. She had five drinks at the crib. . . Pressed by counsel, tho witness admitted that the last she remembered at the crib was the other girl going to bed. She went to bed and to sleep. Matches were used to light the place. Tho other girl who was a member of the party, and who is now an inmate of a home ‘in Christchurch, also gave evidcncc. To Mr Anderson; She lied in the lower court when she said the complainant was sober. She was half-drunk. She admitted giving false evidence in two other particular details. They had not hailed accused’s car in Vogel street. She had not taken a drink. Peter M'Combie, a labourer, aged seventeen years, said the girls had hailed the car. Only one bottle of cocktail and two bottles of beer were taken to the crib. He had lighted a fire, but he had not broken a shelf for firing. He denied that he took any drink at the crib. The girls and the accused took liquor. To Mr Anderson: He denied the girls’ evidence that he was half-drunk. The complainant was drunk, and she was not able to stand up very well. The other girl consumed a little liquor. He did not recollect her going into the room where accused and complainant spent the night. Constable John Southwork, Terauka, said he arrested Notini on July 17. Notini declined to make a statement, but in the lock-up he said he did not know the girl by name. He denied the charge. Addressing the jury, Mr Anderson said the law was wisely made to protect young people against offence, but the burden of proof was on the Crown. He submitted that the jury had never listened to such a tissue of lies. That was the quality of the evidence. Testimony in the lower court was admitted

to be untruthful. How could the jury be expected to believe the other statements? The sorry but accurate fact was that the girl was already a person of low morality. ■ For two months she had been going to the crib. He suggested she was lying when she said she did not hail accused’s car. The evidence was a tissue of lies by witnesses who were self-confessed liars. To convict on such evidence, he submitted, would lie dangerous. After His Honour had summed up the jury retired at 0.35 p.m. ANOTHER MAN CHARGED. Cyril Patrick Lawless pleaded not guilty to four charges ol carnal knowledge and four counts, alternatively, ol indecent assault on two females at Tomahawk on June 4 and G. He was defended by Mr A. G. Neill, instructed by Mr White, “The case is a revolting one, showing a pitiable and deplorable state of immorality,” said Mr Adams, who said the firls, however, were not being tried. Iven such types of girls had to be protected'by the stringent enforcement of the law. One ot the girls was fifteen years of age on June 5 ot this year, and the other was a few days off her sixteenth birthday when the offences allegedly occurred. Counsel’s opening of the case was not concluded when the luncheon adjournment was taken. PALMERSTON NORTH “ I have been a big fool, and 1 suppose I deserve all I get, and am prepared to take it,” said Victor James Jamieson in the Supreme Court, Palmerston North, when he appeared for sentence on a charge of theft from a store at Kelvin Grove. The Crown Prosecutor said accused had not a good record. Mr Justice Blair imposed a sentence of two years’ reformative detention concurrent with the present sentence of eighteen months’ detention. —Press Association. WELLINGTON On charges of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, breaking and entering and theft, and with being found by night in the possession of housebreaking implements, Lawrence Desmond Tanner, aged twenty, out on license from the Borstal Institution at Invercargill, was ordered to be detained in the Borstal Institution for a period not exceeding three years. George Albert Proudfoot, aged twenty-three, found guilty of breaking and entering and theft, with a recommendation to mercy, was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay costs. John Peris,' indecent assault on a male, was sentenced to two years’ hard 'ahour. Halfway through the Crown case against Charles Sender, charged with receiving a quantity of jewellery, valued at £27, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained, the Chief Justice directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. This was done and tho prisoner discharged.