HINDU DOCTOR SENTENCED

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1929, Page 11

HINDU DOCTOR SENTENCED

THREE YEARS’ HARD LABOUR "EVERLASTING DISGRACE” EARNED. MOVING PLEA IN AUCKLAND CASE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Nov. IL Dr. Balder Singh Share, found guilty of having indecently assaulted a young woman at his rooms on September 26, came up for sentence this morning before. Sir Alexander Herdman. He was sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for three years. , Before sentence was given Shares.counsel made an eloquent plea. He repudiated the report in one Auckland newspaper that his defence was a vilification of the girl. Never at any stage was there an attack on; the girl’s, character. The prisoner was a consumptive subject and counsel suggested; that the complaint from which Share was' suffering may have had something to do ; with this unfortunate affair. Accused was now in a position hot only degrading, but one which had brought ruin to himself, his wife and his family. Share at this stage leaned over the dock with a handkerchief covering his face and sobbed quietly. Counsel, continuing, said: “In this court to-day are accused’s wife and his son, a lad of sixteen. His wife is a simple Indian woman whose affections have not waned and who has stuck to her husband just as a true wife should. His son is also a consumptive patient. I would ask that the ■penalty which you are forced to impose be made, as light as your honour possibly can.” "Prisoner at the bar,” said Sir Alexander Herdman,”, I propose to say- little that will add to the indignity of the position you now occupy. . You have had the advantage of an extremely able defence and your counsel’s cross examination of the girl was conducted with admirable taste. . Upon evidence from which there was no escape you were found guilty of an offence which is highly punishable, and which no plea can excuse. If other medical practitioners behaved as you did it would be unsafe to. allow women to enter a doctor’s surgery alone. "I have authority to order you to be flogged, but in this instance I do not propose to exercise that power. Your good name has gone and any reputation that you had as a professional man has vanished. You have brought everlasting disgrace upon yourself and Nev Zealand. The jury Jias declared you to be a sexual pervert and this is the serious result of your misbehaviour and in itself % a formidable punishment, but not withstanding that it is my duty to assess punishment in accordance • -with the law- This is not a case of rope. You did the girl no physical injury and the jury recommended you to mercy. Taking all these circumstances into account I think that sentence of three yeans’ imprisonment with hard labour will cause you and others like you to understand that respectable young women cannot be tampered with with impunity.”