FLOGGING CANCELLED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1939, Page 6

FLOGGING CANCELLED

APPEAL COURT DECISION. ON ACCOUNT OF MENTAL STATE OF PRISONER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Judgment was delivered today by the Court of Appeal in the case brought by Leslie Eric Towns against the sentence of seven years’ imprisonment and a flogging imposed in the Supreme Court at Christchurch on May 12 last, upon his conviction on a charge of indecent assault on a female.

The Chief Justice (Sir M. Myers) today said the case was a shocking one and the circumstances were such as to show that the prisoner was a menace to the safety of the female children of the community and to require that he be placed for a lengthy period out of the way of doing further harm. The question of the flogging, however, required more serious consideration. A report had been obtained from the Medical Superintendent of the Mental Hospital at Christchurch whch indicated that while Towns could not be regarded as insane, there was nevertheless a condition of mental impairment disclosed which rendered it undesirable that the flogging should be carried out in case it should result in a complete breakdown of mental and moral fibre. For this reason the sentence would be altered by cancelling the flogging. Sir M. Myers added that the mental condition of the prisoner was not brought to the knowledge of the trial Judge, who now agreed that the flogging should be cancelled.