SUPREME COURT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1787, 5 November 1919, Page 11

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SESSIONS. The criminal sessions of the Supreme Court were continued this morning before his Honour Mr Justice Herdmaii. Mr A. T. Donnelly appeared on behalf of the Crown. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE. Henry T. Laing, a tramway conductor, was charged that, on August 8, 1919, he attempted to carnally know a girl 14 years and nine months of age. Accused was also charged that, on the same date, he indecently assaulted the girl. Mr 0. T. J. Alpers appeared for the accused. The defence put up was that the girl told accused she was 16 years of age, and that he had reasonable grounds for supposing' she was that age. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on both charges. Sentence was deferred until to-morrow morning at 9.30 o 'clock. A RACECOURSE INCIDENT. On August 15 last, during the course of a race meeting of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club at Addington, an allegedly forged "tote" ticket on Dillon Direct, the winner of the second race, the Federal Handicap, was presented at tho totalisator, and, as a rosult, a man, named John Lynch, was arrested and charged with forging the ticket, and also with attempting to cause George A. Blackmore to act upon it as if it were genuine. Lynch came up for trial to-day. He was defended by Mr J. A. Cassidy. Mr Donnelly said the ticket plainly showed that it had been forged. It would also be proved from the books of the totalisator and the calculating number on tho ticket, that it was impossible for the ticket to have been issued oil Dillon Direct.

Charles E. Woledge said that, on August 15, he was managing the inside of the totalisator at Addington. He considered that the ticket (produced) had been altered. The code work on the ticket showed that it had been issued on a horse in the Federal Handicap, but the records showed it could not have been issued on Dillon Direct. His Honour: Then the alteration must have "been made on the course?— Yes. His Honour: The man must have had a printing machine of some sort out there? —I don't know how he would make the alteration. Continuing his evidence, witness said the box (produced) was the" one in which the tickets sold at "A" window were kept. The "A" on the ticket in question showed that it had been sold at this window. The ticket could not have been on No. 8, Dillon Direct, because the calculating number showed that only five tickets on No. 8 had been sold at "A" window, and the ticket in fiuestion bore the calculating number 14. The ticket No. 14 may have been faken from behind the others out of its turn. The ticket may have originally been on Nos. 1, 5, 10 or 11, as more than 14 tickets were sold on these horses at the "A" window.

To Mr Cassidy: The number would not be changed until the race was over. Judging from the time the ticket was presented at the pay-out window, the man would have about 20 minutes to change the number. Mr Cassidy: It is pretty well done? — Yes. The person must have been a good penman. His Honour: Could not the number have been put on with a stamp? At the request of his Honour, the genuine ticket, bearing the calculating number 14, was produced from the department in the box marked 8, all the unsold tickets in this, box having been kept for the purposes of the trial. (Proceeding.) WELLINGTON SESSIONS. Press Association. WELLINGTON, November 5. In the Supreme Court, before Mr Justice Chapman, John Lister, for common assault on a little girl in the Basin Reserve, was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment. Gilbert Gordon Sotherly, 19 years of age, for indecent assault on a girl, was ordered two years' reformative treatment. Edward Myer, with a record of 2;! previous convictions, was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, on a charge of false pretences and declared a habitual criminal. Tipe Rimene was charged with the theft of a motor cycle. The prisoner had served honourably at the Front for four years. His Honour said he would give the prisoner a chance. He could not admit him to probation, but would order him to present himself at the next sittings of the Court. If he misbehaved in tlic meantime it would be open to the police' to living him up for sentence on the present charge.