ASSAULT ON BABY

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 September 1939, Page 2

ASSAULT ON BABY

“A SHOCKING CRIME.” [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, September 8. Appearing for Arthur Norton Sim, of Ashburton, who came before Mr. Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court, to-day, for sentence on a charge of assault causing bodily harm, Mr. C. S. admitted that Sim’s attack on an 11-months-old baby was a shocking crime. -Sim placed his finger down the child’s throat, and in a statement produced in the Lower Court, he said he did not wish to kill the child, but to injure it, so that it would die. On prisoner’s behalf, Mr. Thomas said that in a motor accident, in December, 1935, he suffered severe head injuries, and, for some three weeks after, he was quite irrational. Since then, he was mentally less stable than before. Medical evidence showed that he was not quite normal. “He was married in May last,” said Mr. Thomas, “and afterwards his friends told him he was the mug. The question of the paternity of the child apparently preyed on . his mind. His friends being more than willing to discuss it with him, it became an obsession.” He had had some liquor, .after discussing the question with some friends, and, on arriving home, com"mitted a shocking assault on the child. While accepting evidence of previous conduct His Honor, said., it was the Court’s duty to protect those in close .contact with prisoner from what seem.ed, on this occasion, to be a homicii.dal tendency. In sentencing Sim to >lB months’ reformative detention, the Judge said that during that period Sim .could be kept under observation, and, if his mental state were not restored to normal, appropriate steps could be itaken.