YOUTHS SENTENCED

Evening Star, Issue 21080, 18 April 1932, Page 8

YOUTHS SENTENCED

TWO SENT TO BORSTAL ANOTHER OFFENDER ALLOWED PROBATION CHARGES OF BREAKING AND ENTERING Three youths—Ernest Norman Eric Marsh, Leonard John Booth, and Robert Phelan —appeared before His Honours Mr Justice Kennedy in the Supreme Court this morning for sentence upon charges of breaking, ' entering, syid theft from a shop, and attempted . breaking, entering, and theft. Counsel who represented Marsh and Booth said the former was nineteen years •of age. His parents had lived apart for some six years, the separation taking place at a critical period in the boy’s life. The boy left school, at thirteen years of age and obtained employment Avith a fruiterer, giving satisfaction until another employee stole some money, Marsh being found in possession of some of it. / The accused was later apprenticed to a motor firm and remained in that employ for nearly four years', to within a few months of completing his apprenticeship. The lad Booth was eighteen and a-half years \ • of age, and had also been unfortunate in that there had been domestic trouble between the parents. He first got into trouble when he was ten, through the " conversion of a bicycle, and later committed a similar offence. Placed in a home for backward children, he did well. Tie was discharged when he was fourteen, and since then had been “ up against it ’’ through being unable to obtain' regular employment. The whole trouble seemed to have arisen as the result of the buying, of a motor car by Marsh, it being absurd to think that hoys* like these were able to run a motor car. They went to Christchurch for the holidays in the car, with which they had a great deal of trouble, and, coming back to Dunedin, they broke into places to secure parts for the car. Counsel said that the car had been sol'd, and he suggested that, on account of their youth, and because of the fact that they had already had the fright of their lives, the youths Marsh and Booth be given a chance. Counsel for Phelan said his client wap seventeen years and nine months old. The guardian of this lad had found the boy was having a bad influence on the members of his own family, and two years ago Phelan left the house. He got in with, bad companions. His part in the .offences had been a minor one. Since he .bad been before the court, his guardian had decided to take the boy back and see if he could do something to reform him. It was suggested th i he could be reformed, as lie was now obeying instructions implicitly. The Crown Prosecutor said that Marsh and Booth were awaiting sentence in the lower court on no fewer than ten charges. Phelan was not involved in any of those charges. The motor car was bought by the boy Marsh for something like £l2 10s. It appeared from the police report that the car jrst came . into prominence when the' youths fyegan to syphon petrol from other cars. It had been suggested that the motor car the youths astray, but to the speaker it seemed that the lads set out to use the car for criminal purposes. Dealing with the prisoner Phelan, His Honour said this youth’s record did not seem to be entirely without blemish, but this was the first occasion upon which he had appeared before a court. The probation officer recommended probation, and thought that, by co-operation with the gentleman named by counsel, he might break the baneful association that _ had recently obtained. Instead of being sentenced to a term of. imprisonment Phelan would be released upon probation for ' two years, upon the usual statutory conditions and upon the special conditions that he remained under the joint guidance of the probation officer and the other gentleman and obeyed all instructions as to his moral, welfare, and that ho paid the costs of the prosecution (£3 9s) within two years by weekly instalments not exceeding ss. In sentencing Marsh to be detained . in a Borstal institution for two years, His Honour said that from the material before him this was undoubtedly a case in which there was great need for institutional control. Booth was also sentenced to two years in the Borstal, His Honour stating that the prisoner had previously been before the court on charges of dishonesty. He seemed to be drifting further into crime instead of learning a lesson from the leniency extended to him.