SAD SCENE IN COURT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19632, 10 May 1927, Page 13

SAD SCENE IN COURT.

DISTRESSED MOTHER'S CRY.

YOUNG SON SENT TO PRISON. AFFECTING INCIDENT FOLLOWS. A poignant scene created by a mother's distress at hearing her sen of 17 years sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment was witnessed in the Supreme Court yesterday. Herbert Kilburn, who bad been found guilty of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, stood in the dock. His counsel, Mr. Dickson, in seeking probation, pleaded prisoner's youth, stating that had Kilburn been a year younger he would have appeared before the Children's Welfare Coart. Prisoner's confederate in the crime, counsel declared, was a convicted thief and had been the master mind in the offence, Kilburn, who was not a criminal, taking part more as a, matter of mischief. To send the youth to gaol would be to make him a criminal, counsel said. His Honor, addressing prisoner: You have been convicted on the clearest possible evidence of taking part with another man in a burglary, and -were caught red-handed. lam bound to take notice of the fact that burglaries are becoming increasingly frequent in the city and you are the kind of young man who commits these offences. The police say you are of the larrikin typo, and I agree with them that a great many of the burglaries in New Zealand are committed not by professional burglars but by young men of the larrikin type. The Judge said that to admit prisoner to probation would be to place a premium on crime, whereas a strong deterrent was called for. Ho sentenced Kilburn to 12 months' imprisonment. Externally calm, the prisoner stepped from the dock, but when he reached the rear of the Court he wais embraced by his mother, who uttered a sobbing cry, " He's my baby," and weepingly protested against the boy's removal in custody. The prisoner, too, then resisted and was only removed after a sharp scuffle. For a while the woman's sobs could be heard in the court-room as she followed the prisoner and escorting constables outside.