AUCKLAND’S CRIME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19504, 3 February 1926, Page 7

AUCKLAND’S CRIME

PREPONDERANCE OF SEXUAL CHARGES A FIGHT ON THE lONIC [Per Press Association] AUCKLAND, Feb. 2. The criminal sessions of the Supremo Court opened to-day. Mr Justice Herdman, in his charge to the Grand Jury, commented on the preponderance of sexual charges (24). There N.as a charge against three natives —husband, wife and daughter, of attempting to sot fire to a house in a block of native land, there being some dispute hs to ownership. Another charge of arson was against a man aged 72 years, who, it appeared, resented the action of a man who had befriended him and set fire to a haystack. Accused is at present in a mental hospital. A man named Sullivan was charged with manslaughter (arising from a fight on the steamer lonic, which resulted i in the death of a seaman named Kelly. I There was a fight, and it was a fair • fight in the sense that only fists were used. It seemed to the Judge that ’ Sullivan did no more than resist an I attack by Kelly. The Grand Jury returned no bills in the cases of Ronald George. Franham, aged 27, charged with manslaughter, arising out of a motor accident; Phillip Michael Sullivan, aged 19. a trimmer on the lonic, charged with manslaughter; and Walter Joseph Vickers, charged with assault causing actual bodily harm. The prisoners were ac eordingly discharged.