Three Years’ Probation For Youth Who Stabbed Another

Wanganui Chronicle, 13 December 1949, Page 6

Three Years’ Probation For Youth Who Stabbed Another

NAPIER, Yesterday (P.A.)—There was evidence in Napier of the presence of incipient youthful “gangsterism,” said Mr. L. G. H. Sinclair. S.M., when sentencing a 16-year-old youth in the Children’s Court today to three years’ probation on strict terms on a charge of assaulting Ronald Joseph Drummond so as to cause actual bodily harm. The charge was the sequel to a stabbing affray in Napier on November 18.

“The fact that you had been going around the town at night with a sheath knife strapped to your chest indicates just how foolish you are, and the type of thing this could lead a young man to do,’’ said the magistrate to accused. The police evidence revealed that after accosting Drummond and his companions, accused presented the sheath knife, which penetrated Drummond's stomach to a depth of two inches. “There appears to be a feud between some lads in Napier and others in Hastings," said Detective-Sergeant A. Reid. He hoped this case would show other young men who were disposed to “gang up” and become a nuisance that the practice was frowned upon, said Mr. Sinclair.