SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1921, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

AUCKLAND SESSIONS. By Telegraph.—Pteas Association. Auckland, August 24. In the Supreme Court, Walter William Knox was sentenced to ten years' hard labor for rape on a girl of eighteen years. Prisoner was a married man, 24 years of age. Alfred Oscar Otto, a land agent, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment ou a charge of having obtained £4OO by false pretences. James David Henry, for having obtained money by false pretences from a housemaid at Gisborne was sentenced to three years’ reformative treatment. Auckland, Last Night. At the Supreme Court, Gus Edward Loomb (50), on a charge of attempted carmil knowledge of •' girl at Panmure, was

sentenced to a jcat's hard labor. Thomas Henry Loomb (57), for carnal knowledge of. the same girl, received a year’s hard labor.

Joseph Ernest Smith, for the theft of his employers’ money at Opotiki, was sentenced to five yea..?’ probation. The Crown decided not to proceed in the case agairst James Alfred Martin for alleged rape on a girl seventeen years of age in April, 1920. At two previous trials the jury failed to agree. CASES AT NAPIER. Napier, Last Night. At the Supreme Court to-day, William Baker, alias Barker, alias Thomas, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a co at and vest valued at £7 10s. Accused, who hnd a long list of previous convic'aotiS, was sentenced to six months’ hard lalor ana declared an habimal criminal.

Counsel for Hany Cohen,* found guilty the previous day on charges of indecent assault, made an applicnuon for a '•main question to be reserved for the Appeal Court. The question concerned His Honor’s direction that putting a child on a promise was treated by the law as equivalent to putting an adult on oath. The Judge intimated that he would consider the points raised, and sentence was deferred till tomorrow.

Francis John Taylor was found guilty of indecently assaulting a male. The jury added that accused was slightly deficient, or a sexual degenerate. He was sentenced to three years’ hard labor.