BARKER'S BEASTLINESS.

NZ Truth, Issue 181, 5 December 1908, Page 7

BARKER'S BEASTLINESS.

A Child Violator , Punished.

Although not saturate*; with sexual sin- to ithe same .extent as . : that stinkpoj* of the : Plains, . called Ohristctiurch, the city of punedin is by.vno means; immaculal$ r - and tiiere wore several scandalous cases dealt with m" the Supreme Court last week. In on© of these Keginald Barker^»^e"a^ : dispSßßfiilly. :; ''-'-He k'w;as'''iii--dieted, pa; a charge of indecently. assaul ting 1 a little eirl, only ; nine years of age. Barker was defended by Mr ' Buriard' and. pleaded, jiot guilty. The £irl wds a dear, dainty little kMdie with pretty, dark brown ringlets hanging over her shoulders, 'and she gave her' evidence , intelligently and clearly. From the chili's story it was shown that her mother sent her on an errand between , 7 ii»d 8 o'clock at. flight to. buy grpceries, etc. Wear par- : gill Road she'saw Barker come out of a; pub. He led a bike, f and wheeling it over to the girl asked her- if she would like a ride. She.- po&itely • replied, "Noy thank you," ,l>ut. Barker .ignored the relusal, picked Ver |up,' and placed her on the saddle., : She' told him. tbatr; she, ;ttad to go to another shoji " to get some things,, and he

wheeled her there and waited for her. Om her return he again put her on tHo saddle, took some change she had to mind 'far her, and wheeled her along Cargill R«ad< The girl told him she wanted to go along 'the' main road, but Barker said Cargill Road was best and

PROMISETD HER LOTS OF LOLLIES AND ORANGES. It' was while the .bestial Barker;: was wheeling the -child along that the assault was committed. While pretending to hold her on the saddle the brute was all -the while indecently mauling the little girl and repeating' his promises of lollies and oranges m abundance. He kept this up. to the; vpry door of the child/ s home. Then he put.' her down, gave her her money back, and while holding her hand asked her if she knew where the workshops were.' She said she did, and Barker then asked her to meet him at 7 o'clock on the- 'fallowing night, when hewoujd give her lots of oranges. The filthy degenerate then committed a most disgusting* act. The • poof little thing, cried al»ud because "she knew it was .rude." He released her then, ■■ and she ran into the house and told her parents. ! , , , / , - The defence was a point blank denial 01 the charge. Accused admitted giving the child, a ride oh his bike, but he posed— thrpush his lawyer— as a kir.d, .tender-: hearted gentleman of irreproachable morals. The girl was carrying a h«avy parcel he said, and purely out of good nature he put heron his Itike and wheeled her home to relieve her of her burden. The jury sniffed scornfully at this pretty little fairy tale, however, and were not long m bringiDg m a verdict of guilty. In pleading for mercy Lawyer Burnard said accused was 42 years of age—practically m the prime of life— and a long term of chokey would mean a .great deal to him. The offence .m its nature was a s'ev ridus one, but no physical, injury had been done to the child, although, oj course, there,, was a serious moral .injury. A case of this soßt was very difficult to explain, but' he asked the Court to take into consideration all the circumstances and inflict as light a punishment as -possible.- . M reply to Mr Justice Williams, Mr Macassey (for the prosecution) stated that Barker was a native of Kent, land (where the hops come irom) awJ was a piano tuner. He landed at Port Chalmers m 1871 and his general character was bad. He was convicted at Dunedin m ; 1901 of the£t from the person, and.escaped yiiih .only six weeks' hard labor. In June of the present year he was convicted of drunkenness and discharged. The, police , ' REGARDEi) HIM AS A « t WASTER.". ; In; dealing out punishment to fit the orime, 'the J udge said : "AH assaults on children are of a- serious n>ture, but there are; degrees of seriousness,- and the present case- is certainly one^ m which the assault was 1 much less serious than such assaults frequently are. No. physical harm was done to the child; and, we may hope, as little moral harm as possible. You are sentenced to three years? imprisonment, with hard labor." •