WELLINGTON SHOOTING FATALITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3265, 11 October 1916, Page 7

WELLINGTON SHOOTING FATALITY.

“FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.’’ WELLINGTON, October 3

In the .Supremo Court, Ernest Charles Jewell Devoin, convicted of manslaughter in connection with tho death of Louisa White, from tho effects of a bullet wound, was sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for the ''est of his life.

Mr Justice Chapman, after reviewing counsel's statements on prisoner's behalf, said his interpretation of the jury's recommendation attached to tho verdict of manslaughter (that the maximum penalty therefor be imposed) was that they had great difficulty in arriving at a verdict short of one of wilful murder. Quite apart from anything tho jury had said in addition to their verdict, he had to consider the proper sentence in tho case.

To Devoin his Honor said: "You, prisoner, took this girl out on a pretence of taking her for a walk. She was an innocent girl, honestly attached to you, and taking her out in this way for a walk you did an act which caused her death. Taking the whole circumstances, I have to consider not what punishment to inflict—because I really do not know how to inflict punishment,—but what measures! I must take to satisfy the conscience # of tho public and ensure other women in future against a recurrence of your apparently motiveless act. I recognise that I am. not dealing with an ordinary man. I am dealing with a clangorous man, and I will go further and

say that 1 am dealing with a man not fit to bo trusted to bo a member of the community, of which such as tho deceased form a part. That is the task imposed on wc, and there is only one way of discharging the duty east upon me. The

sentenco of the court is that you be imprisoned, with hard labour, for the rest of your life."