SUPREME COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21982, 17 June 1933, Page 20

SUPREME COURT

CRIMINAL SITTING Friday, June 16. (Before his Honor Mr Justice Kennedy.) BREAKING AND ENTERING. James Robert Stanley Sutherland appeared for sentence on a charge of entering a shop by night and committing theft. —The accused was undefended,. and, asked if he wished to say anything in his defence, he said he did not desire to do so. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr F. B. Adams) produced the .police report, a copy of which was handed to the accused for his perusual. Accused said he did not desire to comment on the report. His Honor said the depositions disclosed that accused and his associate proceeded in a somewhat experienced manner in the perpetration of their crime. In view of accused’s record, a term of imprisonment must be imposed. The sentence of the court would be that he would be detained for reformative purposes for two years. THE BALCLUTHA CASES. Charles George Albany Wyber, aged, 18, was called on for sentence for, being a person in lawful custody on a charge of using obscene language, he made his escape from such custody.—William John Jardine, aged 20, was also called on for sentence on a charge of assisting a prisoner to escape from the Balclutfia lockup.—Mr C. G. L. White (instructed by Mr R. R. Grigor, of Balclutha) appeared for the two accused. —Mr White said the charges arose out of an episode at Balclutha, the circumstances of which disclosed only a foolish act that had no criminal intent. The offences took place on Abe evening of the King’s Birthday, on which occasion these young fellows had been making merry. It was a regrettable fact that they had been able to procure liquor in a no-license district; the person who. supplied them was certainly at fault. There was a disturbance at a dance, and Wyber was arrested by the constable and placed in a cell at the lock-up, bolting the door.- Jardine had nothing to do with the disturbance, but on hearing of his friend’s arrest he went to see the police. The constable was absent at the time, and Jardine, looking round the place, found that the . eftor of th‘e cell was only bojted. He pulled the Dolt back, and his friend left the cell. No doubt it was a foolish thing to do. The probation officer recommended probation, on certain conditions, one of which was that the young fellow, should be prohibited from attending dances and billiard saloons, and the parents would welcome such a restriction. Jardine was a printer by trade; he had been out of work for some time. Both_ boys were under the influence of drink at' the time. ■ _ _ The Crown Prosecutor (Mr F. B. Adams) handed in police reports with regard to the youths. On the face of it, he said, the case was somewhat like a boyish episode. One of the two had made obscene remarks on the street in the hearing of the constable, and was arrested. The case would be fairly light but for the suggestion that it was really an episode in a career of drinking which the youths were pursuing in a no-license district. He (Mr Adams) had. found no reason to suggest that the accused were drinking. The constable had stated that one boy (Wyber) had been taking liquor, but there was no suggestion that the other boy had been drinking. His Honor said he regarded as the more serious the act of the boy who opened the door and allowed the other boy to escape. Looking at the youth of the two accused and at the circumstances surrounding the cases, he would give them a final chance to redeem themselves, and- instead of sending them to prison he would release them on probation on terms. “It.should not be necessary,” said his Honor, "with boys of your youth, and living in a district where you are said to reside, to prevent you, by force of law, from obtaining liquor; but I propose to make that a condition of your probation.” His Honor said he would order Wyber’s release on probation for a term of three years upon the usual statutory conditions and upon the following special conditions which the probation officer thought necessary:—(l) That accused pay the costs of the prosecution (£1 Is); (2) that he should from time to time accept such employment as was reasonably available; (3) that he did not attend billiard rooms or dance rooms; and (4) that he take out, and keep renewed during probation, a prohibition order against himself. Addressing the accused Jardine, his Honor said he would also be released on probation for a period of three years upon the usual statutory conditions and upon the same conditions that were applicable to Wyber.