ASSAULT ON GIRLS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12197, 23 July 1925, Page 4

ASSAULT ON GIRLS

ARTIST COMMITTED “EXPLANATION MERE HUMBUG.” Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 22. Mr Poynton, S.M., gave judgment to-day in the case against Charles Horaoe Bettany, artist, who was charged with assault on girls. He said the accused advertised office employment for young girls, and when the applicants appeared he suggested that the girls would be able to earn additional money by posing for him as an artist’s model. Bettany proposed to two girls that they should strip behind a curtain, and both girls declined. They were there separately. Bettany then measured one girl outside her clothing in different places, and aTound her leg in different places, and on her hare skin. The accused’s explanation to each girl was that he wished to repair a broken statue. This was humbug, He was a good artist, and knew well the normal measurements of the average woman and of world-famous statues. The action of the accused was a mere pretence to induce the Igirls to submit to his handling. Tho magistrate said he was convinced that Bettany’s advertisements were intended to inveigle the girls into his office for that purpose, not to get them employment. The defence was one of consent, hut that did not hold where consent was obtained by false or fraudulent misrepresentation. Bettany could have been charged with a jffaver offenoe, but on the faots he would he committed for assault on both charges. The ohief-detective asked for a demand, before sentence, till to-morrow, as he wanted to make inquiries about Bettany.

The magistrate agreed, but refused an application for the suppression of the accused’s name.