ALLEGED ABDUCTION

Southland Times, Issue 20618, 17 October 1928, Page 8

ALLEGED ABDUCTION

THE CASE OF A. R. SMITH. MAGISTRATE DISMISSES INFORMATION. (From Our Correspondent.) At yesterday’s sitting of the Gore Magisstrat’s Court, Mr H. J. Dixon, S.M., gave his reserved decision in the case in which Arthur Robert Smith, tobacconist, Gore, was charged with that on September 10 at Gore, with intent that a girl under the age of 18 years should be unlawfully and carnally known, he did take her out of the possession and against the will of her employer. In the course of a lengthy judgment the Magistrate held that there had been insufficient evidence to show that the girl had left her employer as a consequence of the persuasions of the accused. The girl might have wished to protect the accused, but she was the only witness called by the prosecution to give evidence upon this point, and therefore her statements had to be accepted. The girl stated that Smith had asked her to go away, but said also that the arrangement was a mutual one. She further stated that when on the train Smith had advised her that it was not too late to turn back if she wished to do so. In her evidence she said that she would have left her employment on the following Monday in any case and her decision had probably been influenced to a large extent by the fact that she did not wish it to be known that she was in trouble. It could not therefore be held that she was led away by the persuasions of the accused and the information would therefore be dismissed.