AUCKLAND SUPREME COURT

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14932, 4 March 1912, Page 5

AUCKLAND SUPREME COURT

THEFT FROM THE PERSON,

TWO WOMEN SENTENCED.

The Auckland Supremo Court • continued its sittings on Saturday, , Mr. Justice Chapman presiding. The two "women, Florence May Thompson and Susan Lynskcy, who were convicted on the previous evening on joint charges of having stolen a £20-noto and two £l-notes from a married woman named Martha Robinson, at a house in Severn-street, off Khyber Pass Road, on December 19 last, were brought up for sentence.

Dr. Bamford and Mr. A. G. Quartley, who appeared as counsel for Lynskey and Thompson respectively, asked for leniency for their clients, on tho ground that they bad never previously been charged with dishonesty.

His Honor sentenced Thompson to three months' imprisonment with hard labour, and Lynskey to five months' confinement in gaol, also with hard labour. AN ILLEGAL OPERATION. A middle-aged woman, named Lilian Lang, whose trial on a charge of having performed an illogal operation upon a young woman named Vewa Viti Potter (a European,, born in Fiji),, had commenced on the previous day, was again placed in tho dock. A considerable amount of evidence (the publication of which was prohibited) was taken. Mr. J. R. Reed, counsel for the prisoner, addressed tho Court in her behalf at considerable length, and the Hon. J. A. Tole, K.C., who prosecuted on behalf of the Crown, replied. His Honor summed up, and tho jury retired at 1.10 p.m. They returned to Court at 4.50, with a verdict of guilty, adding a strong recommendation to mercy, on the ground that the prisoner was in ill-health. When tho verdict was announced, Mrs. Lang was seized with an hysterical fit, and was carried down the stairs by the warders, screaming and sobbing, and declaring that she could never come out of prison alive again. His Honor deferred tho passing of sentence. •