CASE AGAINST EX-JOCKEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20562, 13 May 1930, Page 12

CASE AGAINST EX-JOCKEY.

REMAND FOR .OBSERVATION.

QUESTION OF MENTALITY

'A former jockey,:. James Claude Regan, aged 21, who had pleaded guilty at Hamilton to a' charge of rape, appeared for sentence before Mr. Justice Smith in the Supreme Court yesterday. On behalf of tho prisoner, Mr. Schramm said that about three years ago ho had met with an accident while riding in a steeplechase at Whangarei, and since then he had not beeti normal, lie did not seem to appreciate that he had committed such ii serious offence. At times he was subject to fainting fits and lapses of memory. Counsel considered that the prisorlcr was more mental than criminal. Ho was unable to get a licence for riding as the authorities considered that lie w as not yet.sufficiently restored to health. Tho prisoner had met a young girl late at night.at a dance, Mr. Schramm continued. He had been drinking, and had it not been for that the offence would lie.ver have happened. He had saved the Crown expense by pleading guilty in the lower Ciurt. Counsel asked that leniency should bo shown. For t'lie Crown, Mr. Hubble said the offence appeared {o have been a brutal -assault. Ii would appear that'he knew that he was doing wrong. • Mr. Schramm said he could not say that the prisoner was a mental defective within tho meaning of the Mental Defectives Act, but he was not normal. The jiolice report said he was not normal. "The plea, will require to be established whether lie is really a person practically irresponsible in regard to sex matters," said His Honor. The prisoner's mother said that at, times lie seemed all right,, but at other times his miyd seemed to wander. lie had been picked up in the street and taken to the hospital about eight months ago. "He has been a good boy to" me, arid 1 don't know what 1 would do without him," she said. "I do not think lie is normal." His Honor said that in view of (he plea by counsel and the fact that the prisoner was only 21 years of age, although the charge was a most serious one, he would remand liirn for a week iri custody for observation at the Mental Hospital. He desired to have the fullest information possible . before passing sentence.