CONVICTED FOR ASSAULT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 23 May 1925, Page 9

CONVICTED FOR ASSAULT.

INCIDENT NEAR KAPONGA

JUI7UE DISCUSSES PRISONER’S

MENTALITY

Although acquitted on a charge ol indecent assault. David George Stella, aged 20, of Rowan, was yesterday found guiltv by the Supreme Court at New Plymouth' of having assaulted a married’ woman on the Opunake-Strat-ford road, near Kaponga, on March 21. Two unusual features attached to the case were that accused repudiated in its entirety a signed confession made to the police, and that accused and his counsel were at variance, counsel disassociating himself from accused’s attitude with regard to the written confession. and seeking to show, that the accused, though 'innocent, had signed the confession, thinking that he would be til 1 owed to go free After the evidence for the Crown, previously published in the Star, had been given, accused was put in the box, where he denied having told Constable O’Donogliue that lie had been out shooting, and also denied the signature to'the written confession. At the police station Constable O’Donoghue had said that even if lie . were not guilty he .should a’opogise. He (accused) said he would apologise if he could go home afterwards. Later he did apologise, and after being asked questions off a printed form (probation otticer’s report), the constable wrote for a long time.

Mr C. H. Weston, Crown Prosecutor, said that there had been no suggestion in the cross-examination of the Crown witnesses of any denial of the written confession, and he should therefore be allowed to reca’l to give evidence in rebuttal. , His Honor remarked tnat the Crown had the right to recall every one of its w it nesses. In cross-examination, the accused considered that the constable had trapped him into apologising with a. promise that if lie apologised, oven though he were not guilty, he would he allowed to, go home. Instead lie had been kept in the lock-up for two days. He had told his father about it on his release, but nothin* could be done. He had not made any complaint when the statement in dispute had been read in the Magistrate’s Court. He had also not received all his property back. John Stella and Frank Stella, the. accused’s father and brother, also, gave evidence, the former that he had left the accused some work to do on the afternoon of the alleged, assault, and that the boy was at home when he (witness) returned. The brother said .that he had helped the accused to sharpen a saw. He (witness) had gone out shooting for a little while. Constable O’Donoghue gave evidence in rebuttal. He added that Stella, sen., had beeu given permission to visit Lis son in the loek-up. The father asked the boy if it were true that he had assaulted, the "woman, the accused grinning and replying, “I just assaulted her.” Stella, sen. then left the the cell and outside remarked to witness: 11 Serves him well right.” Addressing the jury, Mr Moss, counsel for the defence, dissociated himself from any suggestion that Constable O’Donoghue himself had done any thing improper either wi,tli regard to the statement or with regard to the boy’s property. Counsel submitted that, apart from the statement, the evidence of identificati jn was so shaky that the jury could not possibly cjooiviet anyone on it. Regarding the statement, he suggested that the accused, in his weak mentality, had gained the idea that it was a case of shake ’hands and all would be well and, although innocent, he had made the apology and the statement under the impression that, they would not count and that he would be allowed to go home. :Summing up, His Honour said that if the jury accepted the evidence of the complainant, whom he was bound to say had appeared, to be very fair, there was the strongest possible evidence of identification. The jury retired at eight minutes past six and returned twelve minutes later with a verdict ns, stated. They added a strong recommendation to mercy. Remarking that he would give every consideration to their recommendation, Ills Honour /told the jury that, although he would not deal with the lad that night, the jury might be sure that, what he would do with him would not be in the nature of punishing him. The jury would agree with him that the prisoner’s mentality was strange., and there . were some very excellent institutions in New Zealand which were not prisons, but at which the mentality of persons like the prisoner could be trained. Stella was remanded until Monday morning for sentence.