JUDGE'S DIFFICULTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23034, 11 May 1938, Page 16

JUDGE'S DIFFICULTY

NATURE OF SENTENCE CRIME BY TWO YOUNG MEN NO PRECEDENT FOR PROBATION [by telegram—own correspondent] PALMERSTON NORTH. Tuesday When two men appeared before His Honor in tho Supreme Court this morning for sentence on a charge of robbery violence, Mr. Justice Blair, before imposing a sentence of reformative detention, remarked that he knew of no case where probation had been granted for a crime of this character. That was his difficulty, His Honor said, because in the case of accused there were circumstances which considerably mitigated the offence. The accused were Allan John Williams, aged 24, married, and Bernard Andrew Mcßrearty, aged 22, single.

His Honor added that he could not avoid imposing some term of imprisonment, but would make it in such a way that accused would come under review by the Prisons Board. They would be held for reformative detention for a period not exceeding nine months.

The victim of the alleged robbery was Charles Cecil Mudgwav, who, it was stated, had met both accused in a hotel in Levin, and was being given a ride back to Palmerston North when he was robbed of money and a watch and chain. Counsel for accused submitted that the offence was more the result of a prolonged drinking bout, stops having been made during the journey to Palmerston North to consume beer.