USE OF INSTRUMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 1

USE OF INSTRUMENT

WOMAN GETS FOUR YEARS’ HARD LABOUR JUDGE’S COMMENT “When you perform an operation, such as you have been found guilty of, you destroy a potential life, and also by not exercising proper skill, you endanger the lives of others.” These reasons were advanced by Mr. Justice Herdman in the Supreme Court yesterday for taking a serious view of the conviction of Jessie Morris, aged 40, for unlawfully using an instrument on a married woman of Kaeo. Morris was sentenced to four years’ hard labour. On behalf of the prisoner Mr. Singer said Mrs. Morris had been compelled to earn he rown living, but unfortunately had adopted illegal means. Counsel suggested that Morris had been “betrayed” by the woman whom she had befriended. He appreciated the fact that this could not be advanced in mitigation of the penalty, but he impressed on the Judge that the penalties for this offence had decreased in severity so far as the length of the term was concerned. Mr. Singer suggested that many people did not regard the act committed as criminal, though the law regarded it as being on the same footing with crimes of violence" or those against property. In spite of the probation officer’s report that Mrs. Morris was a kindly disposed person, the Judge said that he was compelled to take a grave view of the case. He took into consideration that this was the first occasion the prisoner had been before the court. Fortunately, he said, the woman operated on had not died, but nevertheless she had been forced to remain in hospital for a considerable time.