SUPREME COURT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 4881, 5 February 1903, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SESSIONS. Mr Justice Edwards resumed the. business of too criminal sessions at the Supremo Court yesterday. THREE YEARS FOR INDECENT ASSTJLT. John, Joseph Murphy, who was convicted on Monday of indecent assault on a girl of seven years, and whom tho jury recommended to bo flogged, was put forward for sentence. His lienor, in passing sentence, said the prisoner’s case was an exemplification of the old proverb, that often as the pitcher goes to the well it will bo eventually broken. On two previous occasions tho prisoner had been fortu-, nato enough to got oif for similar offences, and ho (tho Judge) should deal with the present case as if the prisoner had never been guilty of any previous offence. Tho jury had recommended that ho'should be flogged, and. he (the Judge) was in the habit of paying attention to the recommendation of juries; but where tho punishment was an exceptionally severe penalty—although ho carefully considered the recommendation of the jury—the responsibility was entirely his, as to whether it should he carried into effect. He. did not propose to order the prisoner to bo flogged on the present occasion, not because ho thought the prisoner did not deserve it—because ho thought ho did—hut because he did not persist to tho full accomplishment of his crime; and he (the Judge) did not wish it to be considered that the punishment would be t] 10 same for such criminals whether they completed their crimes or not. _ That was why he did not order flogging in the present case, but tho prisoner should undergo three yearF hard labour. ALLEGED CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD. Charles Wentworth Langstono nnfi Henry Stuart pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging them on four counts with having conspired to defraud Adam Sargent of tho sum of £l5O in tho mouth of October last, and with having obtained tho sum in question by false pretences, with intent to defraud the aforesaid Adam Sargent.

The evidence for the prosecution was similar to that recently tendered m the Police Court at the preliminary hearing of the charge. Tho Crown case had not closed when the further hearing was adjourned until’ 10.30 o’clock this morning, tho accused, being allowed out in tho meantime, in their own bails of £lOl and sureties of £IOO each.