SENTENCE REDUCED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 98, 28 April 1939, Page 6

SENTENCE REDUCED

INTOXICATED MOTORIST MAORI TO SERVE TWO YEARS IN GAOL. APPEAL COURT ALTERS JUDGE'S PENALTY. The Court of Appeal at W’ellington yesterday reduced to two years the sentence of five years’ hard labour imposed on Mataki Rokena, known as Murdock Rogan, aged 29 years, of Ratana, by Mr. Justice Quilliam in the Supreme Court at Wanganui during the November session, on a

charge of negligently driving a motor vehicle thereby causing death. The Court of Appeal suspended the driving licence of the prisoner and prohibited him from holding a licence for five years. Mataki Rokena, a resident of Ratana, was found guilty at Wanganui by a jury on November 1, 1938, on charges of negligently driving a motor vehicle on the night ot October 14, thereby causing the death of Joan Eliabeth Oldfield, of Marton; being in a state of intoxication at the time of the accident; and with failing to stop after an accident and render all possible assistance to any person who might have been injured. The case arose from an accident on the main road south of Wangaehu just before midnight on the night of October 14. the night ot the Maori elections. The evidence showed tha' a motor lorry driven by prisoner travelling from Ratana toward Wanagehu struck a car in which Joan Elizabeth Oldfield was a passenger, a pole from the lorry piercing the side of the car and striking her. Prisoner was represented in ihe Supreme Court by Mr. V. B. Willis, the case for the Crown being conducted by Mr. N. R. Bain. Crown Prosecutor at Wanganui. The maximum sentence permitted by law, five years’ hard labour, was imposed on the prisoner on the charge of being intoxicated while in charge of a car. On the charge of negligent driving he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and on the charge of failing to stop after an accident two years' imprisonment. The latter terms were to be concurrent with the sentence of fixe years’ hard labour.