SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1931, Page 9

SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON

ATTEMPT TO MURDER GIRL SENTENCE IN TE AWAMUTU CASE. CRIME OF REJECTED SUITOR. . By. Telegraph,- -Press Association. Hamilton, Last Night. A sentence of imprisonment for seven years with hard labour was passed iii the Supreme Court at Hamilton this morning on Frank James Kerr, aged 40, who was found guilty on Friday of the attempted murder of Gertrude Edith West, aged 19, at Te Awamutu on January 24. Addressing the prisoner His Honour said it was difficult to determine in a case of this kind what punishment was most appropriate. That the offence must be dealt with with the severity which accorded with present-day standards was certain. The prisoner had been convicted, His Honour thought properly, of deliberately attempting to kill the girl. There were some people in the community whose sympathy in cases of this description went out to accused persons but who had little regard for those who had suffered as the result of the crime. This offence might have had a much more disastrous result. One regretted to note, added the Judge, that recently crimes of murder and attempted murder figured prominently in tiic criminal calendar. Whether this was due to inadequate punishment or whether it arose from other causes His Honour was unable to say. It seemed to him that the prisoner delib-' crately did what he was now to be punished for. It might have been that just before the incident Kerr had been drinking and that- his sense of right and wrong was somewhat unbalanced. It was plain, however, that for some obscure reason he had made up his mind to revenge himself upon Mies West by deliberately shooting her. But for the intervention of Mr. Ward, a man of- over 70 ,the prisoner might have done further damage. Tin? ease for the • Crown was that Kerr had been paying attention to Miss West. The attention was neither acceptable to the girl nor to her parents. Ker kept pestering the girl and was finally ordered to remain away from the house. A few nights before the shootinw Kerr attempted to again see the gir?. The girl’s parents were poor and the mother had to go out and do cleaning. On the morning of January 24 Miss West Was returning from office-cleaning when Kerr, who borrowed a shotgun, followed her in a motor-car and spoke to her. She resented his approach and passed on homeward. Later, Kerr called at her parents’ house and in the garden shot the girl, necessitating her remainino- in hospital for a long period, during o which time her life was despaired of. Immediately after the shooting Kerr said he had fired the gun accidentally. The question for the jury to decide was whether Kerr went to. the house with the deliberate intention of shooting the girl or whether the gun was discharged accidentally.