A VERY SAD CASE.

Franklin Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 21, 21 February 1934, Page 3

A VERY SAD CASE.

THE POKENO SHOOTING. HUSBAND “MAIMED FOB LIFE.” ACCUSED DETAINED FOB 12 MONTHS. Found guilty on a charge of assault so as to cause actual bodily harm to her husband, George Little, Mary Lillie, of Pokcno, came before the Supreme Court for sentence last week. When prisoner came up for sentence, counsel said it appeared to be a very sad case. For years the woman had toiled on various farms for her husband, and she seemed to be one of the fine pioneer women who had made the country. In recent years she had taken to drink, and, according to her husband, had developed a temper. This had caused unhappiness in the home.

“When you were giving evidence in this case,” said .Ilis Honor, addressing the prisoner, “it struck me that your feelings toward your husband were not at all friendly. In this case the jury recommended that you be leniently dealt with, and to that request I have given my best consideration. The punishment prescribed for this offence cannot exceed three years’ hard labout, but, in the special circumstances that have come under my notice, I do not propose to impose the maximum penalty. On the other hand, notwithstanding good points in your character, probation for an offence of this kind is out of the question.

“Drink may have perverted your moral sense, but there can be no doubt that you acted with deliberation. You had cartridges in your room, you loaded the gun, and you deliberately discharged it at your husband. Fortunately for you, you did not kill him, but you have maimed your husband and maimed him for life. In these days crimes of violence are so common that Courts are bound to take some action which may help to minimise an evil which appears to be growing. This is not a case in which a convicted person acted under a sudden impulse. What was done was done deliberately. “It has been recommended by Major Gordon that you be confined in an inebriates’ home. I think, however,” concluded His Honor, “that it will oe better that you should be under the care of an experienced and capable prison matron. I shall, therefore, order that you shall be detained in prison for reformative purposes for a period not exceeding 12 months.”