BAXTER THE BEAST.

NZ Truth, Issue 180, 28 November 1908, Page 6

BAXTER THE BEAST.

SENTENCED TO A SEVEN YEARS' STRETCH.

Defiles a Child and is Convicted.

Did the Woman Connive at His Crime?

One of the revolting sexual cases 'that have shocked the pious city of Christchurch lately was heard afr the. recent criminal sessions, before Judge Denniston, when Robert .Baxter, a swarthy, middle-aged man not unknown m .Napier, was charged with indecently assaulting a little girl of five years on November 3. The prisoner was defended by Barrister Alpers.. The Court was cleared, but one man remained m the auditorium until his Honor's attention was directed to him. "I am the child's father," he explained. His Honor remarked, "The Law says the Court shall be cleared. Your child will receive every protection." Subsequently, however, the statute bearing on the subject was looked up, and the father was permitted to come back into court. The case' presented some extraordinary features. The kiddie, who lives with her parents m Union-street, came home one day from East Ohristchurch school and found no one at home. At about - five m the evening she was sitting on the kerb, according to the cuild, when Baxter came up and indecently exposed himself to her. He then brought the child to a house at the corner of Union and Avon-streets, when v..c Uont door was opened by a woman. /Baxter took" the child into a bedroom -while the woman went into another room and committed the indecent - assault. Tie youngster cried, and Baxter indicated some "pretty gold fish" to her, and promised her one of them. This evidence was given Dy the victim. WHO EMBARRASSED THE COURT .by sobbing until her mother was brought m to soolhe her. In reply to JSir Alpers, she said that afterwaids the.yiady" toad given her a piece of cake.- "Give her some lollies," said Baxter,.' "If you haven't got any lollies give her a piece of cake." Counsel was proceeding with his crossexamination, whin the child again started to cry, and he desisted. His Honor remarked; "1 know it is a very difhcult position for. counsels " . The child's mother slated that the little girl fcdn't get home till 5.20 p.m., her usual time being about 4.45. Later m the evening the woman gradually got the- whole story from the youngster. On the same ni^ht the girl was taken to see Dr. Symes, who examined her. He found evidence of a sexual assault. He wasn't able to obtain posili.e proof, hut ho fully, beheved that the child s condition was due to such an assault, a conviction which was strengthened by the development later of a certain injury. To Mr Alpers : tie could not, as a medical man, think of anything else, except that she had been tampered with, t.o account for the child's condition. 'Tec. Ward statad that on No vernier 4 he and 'Tec. G-ibson visited Baxter's huuse, v.hen they found Baxter lying on a bed m one room, and a woman named Selena Guilds lying on a bed m another room. Ward knew the lady v* a titute, Told Baxter that the iiitle girl had complained of the indecent cs-.auH on tl:e previous day, also that Baxter had . taUen her iuto the house. Baxter denied asking the child m, but me woman had done so. The man explained that ah article of the youngster's underclothing was hanging down, "and he bad fixed it up.. He denied the assault. The detective asked the woman, m Baxter's presence, if she had asl.'ed the child to come m. She replied, "No. There has tean no child m this house," She had been laid up with influenza on the previous day, she explained. There were four rooms and a sculiery m the house, and the 'liec. noticed two globes of fish m one of the front bedrooms. Baxter had hetn living m the house four or five weeifs. To Mr Alpers': Baxter, who was a laboring man, had . BEEN LIVING WITH THE WOMAN, for a number of years, four or five years ago the. woman had been plying her calling as a prostitute, but the 'tec had not seen her about the street -/for some time. y Mr Alpers : Has she ever been convicted of prostitution ?— No. Why do you call her a prostitute, then? The police of (Jhristchurch "chivvy" these prostitutes, do they not? His Honor deprecated the . use of the word "chivvy." Mr Alpers : The police lay informations with Little to go on with ?— Yes. Why should you call this woman a pro* stitute if she has not been convicted ?— I am stating what I believe to be correct. Dti you know prostitutes who have not "been convioted ?— Yes, a number. Wouldn't you be studying human kindness a little more if ■ you didn't call thsm prostitutes until they are convicted ?— The witness still held to his original opinion. • Robert Baxter, giving evidence m his own defence, said he had been -working; ! at A. and T. Butt's for seven or eight | months, • and had lived with Selina Childs for the past five or six/ years. She was a married ..woman, but had been many years parted from her husbaud, and she and Baxter had been living as man and wife. Baxter said -he was m his back yard at five in i- -the afternoon and the missus was away at the butcher's, when he noticed the youngster m. front of the house m some distress and with portion of her underclothing disarranged. Baxter spoke to her and the missus arriving at that moment, te told her to let the little girl m to see what was wrong with her. The three of them entered a front room, and Baxter told ,the woman to get the vounsster some lollies or some cake., Selioa went into the kitchen for that purpose and return^ ed m a minute with, some cake t Meantime he arranged the child's clothes for her. While there the child made some remark about the gold fish, but Baxter didn't remember promising her one of them. When she received the calce the youngster ceased; crying and went home. Crown Prosecutor Stringer questioned the man closely on the point that it was the duty of the woman and not of the man to arrange the eiiLd s underclothing. Baxter said that his. Mwife" had been behaving herself for six years. . During that time she had been once convicted of drunkenness and , once of theft, serving six months m Cleary's. for the latter otfence. There were two rooms furnished with double beds, 'there was a sofa m the kitchen, and a sofa or stretcher m a front room. They had a boarder named Prank Hill, who 'came to live with them when they took the house, and the missus . HAD NO MEN VISITORS, to Baxter's knowledge. : Selina Childs, a big, blonde woman, gave 'corroborative testimony, contradicting Baxter on minor details only. She explained to Mr Stringer that she wa'sr n'i well and was mucn upset when she told the,) police that- no child had been m the house. During the course of an eloquent address, Advocate Alpers laid stress upon the extreme improbability of the statement that a man like Baxter should expose himself to a child m the open street at an hour when there must have been a considerable number of people about. It was equally preposterous that he should indecently assault the youngster m the house with the apparent ap-. proval of 'the .woman with whom he was living- on terms of intimacy, "it is an impossible proposition," said counsel, "that any woman, be she a prostitute or the most abandoned woman m Christchurch, would connive at, and refuse to interfere with, an act like this, committed by her ma»." Apparently this was not,the opinion of the jury, Avho brought m a verdict of "guilty/ 1 and Baxter received a sentence ■"" 'O.VBI) years ? with hard labor.