ASSAULT ON LITTLE GIRL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 7 April 1945, Page 5

ASSAULT ON LITTLE GIRL

. MAGISTRATE DECLINES TO sentence man Auckland, April 6. Stating that he thought it would be wrong for him to deal with the case. Mr Luxford, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court declined to sentence Douglas Wright, aged 36, labourer, who pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting a girl aged three years. Detective-Sergeant Aplin said the child involved lived in Freeman’s Bay. During her mother’s absence, she was left in the care of a sister aged 12. During the afternoon a woman noticed a three-year-old girl sheltering from the rain in the door of a warehouse near Victoria Park. Accused was seen talking to the child and later to take her into Victoria Park where there are some disused army huts. The woman followed accused and the child but ldst .sight of them. Seeking assistance, the woman found Wright and the child behind one of the huts. Wright immediately ran away, but was chased by the woman who eventually got ihe driver of a vifi to detain him. “The litlie girl was not injured, but it was only the prompt action taken by the woman that probably saved the child from a very i: .sty experience." added Detective-Sergeant Aplin. “Wright has rather a formidable list of previous convictions. He was discharged from prison on license in February.” Wright had nothing to say. “I think it would be wrong for me to deal with this case,’ ’said Mr Luxford. “There is power for the Court to decline to deal with it. On the facts as stated, I think it would be wrong to let this man go with two months imprisonment, which is thp maximum sentence for such an offence.” The Magistrate remanded accused till Thursday next when depositions will be taken l’or the purpose of having Wright dealt with by the Supreme Court.