COURT OF APPEAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17224, 6 October 1927, Page 5

COURT OF APPEAL.

A CONVICTION QUASHED. LEAVE TO APPEAL REFUSED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Before the Appeal Court this morning Mr Fair, K.C., announced that he had considered the Auckland case of Parker and Wood, and the conviction against John Ormiston Wood on the first count should be quashed. Parker and Wood were charged with conspiring to defraud, the former being acquitted and the latter convicted. Mr Fair said it was a principle of the law that, however clear the case might be against one conspirator, both must be acquitted if one was. The Court agreed and quashed Wood's conviction on the first count.

The Court then heard the application of Walter Yelds, of Invercargill, sawmill worker, for leave to appeal against a conviction for attempting to unlawfully carnally know two little girls of 13 and 8 years. .The case was heard before Mr Justice Sim, and in conclusion counsel for accused submitted that Yeld's acts were insufficient to bring him within section 93 of the Crimes Act, 1908, and were, if anything, only a preparation for an attempt. The Judge refused to reserve the question of law for the Court of Appeal. Mr Fair, ILC, appeared for the Crown, and Mr G. Reed for Yelds. The Court dismissed the application without calling on Mr Fair. The Court was unanimously of opinion that the present case was undistinguishable from that of Rex v. Barker, by which the Court found that there was sufficient evidence of intention to commit a major crime, and accused was rightfully convicted of an attempt.