“STUPID RESULT OF QUARREL”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 27 January 1939, Page 3

“STUPID RESULT OF QUARREL”

ATTEMPT TO CHLOROFORM GIRL YOUTH ADMITTED TO PROBATION WELLINGTON, 26th January j On a charge of attempting to ad- i minister chloroform to a girl, to which; he had pleaded guilty in Gisborne. Frank Victor Michie, aged 21, a labourer, was admitted to probation for two years by Mr Justice Ostler in the Supreme Court to-day. Mitchie is to pay the costs of the prosecution, £1 13s, and is to refraim from communicating with the girl during the term ' of his probation. Making a plea for probation for the prisoner, Mr E. D. Blundell said he ' realised the potential gravity of the j offence, but there were very unusual and extenuating circumstances, and an j entire absence of criminal intention, j The crime was the well-intentioned but' stupid result of many quarrels between the prisoner and the girl, : younger than himself, with whom he ; was supposedly in love. Michie was still held in high esteem by the girl’s i mother, proof of this being a letter 1 written by her to the prisoner recently. Mr Blundell handed this letter in. j After a quarrel with the prisoner, j said Mr Blundell, the girl announced her intention of going alone to a dance , where the prisoner feared she might | be maltreated, and he conceived the . crazy idea of giving her a fright to! prevent her going to the dance. He ! knew that she slept with a girl friend J and that his endeavour to reach her with chloroform as she slept would i i become known, but he had no inteni tion of hurting the girl, and actually the chloroform, of which he had used only two drops, never reached her. Michie had once previously been be- j fore the Court, on a charge of attempt- 1 ing to commit suicide, said Mr Blun-! dell. That was part and parcel of the ' whole affair with this girl, and, like j the present charge, was indicative of j ! his mentality. In reply to a question by his Honour, ! Michie said he would undertake not | to see the girl if he were admitted to 1 probation. “Besides being a very foolish crime,” I sad his Honour, "this is potentially a ! very serious one, but counsel has made a powerful plea for mercy, and the Wellington probation officer also thinks this is a case in which the Court might extend the provisions of the Probation Act. I am always ready to err on the side of mercy if I can.”