PRISONER CRASHES FROM DOCK UNCONSCIOUS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 18 November 1937, Page 10

PRISONER CRASHES FROM DOCK UNCONSCIOUS

ON HEARING SENTENCE OF SIX MONTHS INCIDENT IN BLENHEIM SUPREME COURT fß.y Telegraph—Press Association! BLENHEIM, This Day. Prisoner crashed from the dock unconscious when- he heard the sentence of six months imprisonment passed on him by Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court this morning. This tense incident marked the passing of sentence on Leonard Alma Turner, aged 33 years, farmer, of Tinline Valley, In the Pelorus district, who was found guilty yesterday afternoon of the theft of three head of cattle at Tinline on Ist March. The conviction followed the failure of the jury to agree at the previous sessions. When Mr Justice Northcroft said he would take into consideration prisoner’s youth, and the jury’s strong recommendation for mercy, and then passed sentence of six months hard labour, Turner, who was a former amateur middlewcight boxing champion of New Zealand, suddenly collapsed in the dock and fell backwards, striking the floor heavily, before the attendant constable-) realised he had fainted. Prisoner was carried unconscious from the Court and received attention by a doctor who happened to be present in connection with .another case Turner recovered shortly afterwards Before the Judge pronounced the sentence he referred to the seriousness of this type of offence on account of the fact that it was so difficult to detect, and because it was a crime which tended to destroy the goodwill and trust which was so necessary among settlers in the district,