PRISONER FAINTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23353, 19 November 1937, Page 13

PRISONER FAINTS

SENTENCED FOR CATTLE STEALING TENSE INCIDENT IN COURT (Per United Press Association) BLENHEIM, Nov. 18. A prisoner crashed from the dock unconscious when he heard sentence of six months’ imprisonment passed on him by Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court this morning. This tense incident marked the passing of sentence on Leonard Alma Turner. aged 33, a farmer, of Tinline Valley, Pelorus district, who was found guilty yesterday afternoon of the theft of three head of cattle at Tinline on March 1. The conviction followed the failure of a jury to agree at the previous sessions. When Mr Justice Northcroft said he would take into consideration the prisoner’s youth and the jury’s strong recommendation to mercy, and then passed sentence of six months with hard labour, Turner, who is a former amateur middle-weight boxing champion of New Zealand, suddenly collapsed in the dock and fell backwards, striking the floor heavily before the attendant constables realised he had fainted. The prisoner was carried unconscious from the court, and received the attention of a doctor who happened to be present in connection with another case. Turner recovered shortly afterwards.

Before the judge pronounced sentence he referred to the seriousness of this type of offence on account of the fact that it was so difficult to detect, and because it was a crime that tended to destroy the goodwill and trust which were so necessary among settlers in a district.