HAYNE SENTENCED.

Waikato Times, Volume 93, Issue 15311, 11 August 1923, Page 5

HAYNE SENTENCED.

SEVEN YEARS IN GAOL. HIS HONOR’S STRONG COMMENTS. REPROACH ON CITY LIFTED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. DUNEDIN, Friday. James Reynolds ITayne was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for procuring abortion. Mr Hanlon, for the prisoner, gave his age at 71, and stated he was -crippled with rheumatism and suffered from a bad heart, in which circumstances he asked His Honor to give the utmost weight to the jury's recommendation for mercy. His Honor Mr Justice Sim stated that -he always treated a jury's recommendations with respect. According to the police report it was common knowledge that Hayne was an abortionist of some skill, who had several limes stood his trial. In view of the police report and the circumstances of the present case, his plain duty was to impose a substantial term, which would have been mucli longer but for the jury’s recommendation. . His Honor added, to the prisoner, “hitherto juries have displayed a curious reluctance to convict in your case, however strong the evidence may have been. Happily that reluctance has been overcome and at length 12 men had been found who were prepared to observe the oath taken and return a verdict according to the evidence, and Dunedin had been redeemed from the reproach -of being a city where a notorious abortionist was able to carry on and laugh at the law."