LITTLE GIRLS KISSED.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18806, 30 November 1932, Page 6

LITTLE GIRLS KISSED.

RELIEF WORKER’S ACTION. GAOL FOR ONE MONTH. Two charges of common assault were preferred against Hugh Hughes, a married relief worker, aged 58 years, in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court this morning. Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., presided. Evidence was led by Senior-Ser-geant Sweeney that while working on a footpath in Whltiora the accused knelt down and kissed a little girl, who was unknown to him. After corroborative evidence was given, Constable G. Callaghan read a statement in which the accused admitted the offence and a.similar offence in connection with a girl aged 3i years. He had only kissed the girls out of affection, he said, and expressed regret for his action. In the witness-box the accused said he did not regard kissing as assault. His Worship lenVighitened fliim on this point and asked the police if anything was known about the man. Senior-Sergeant Sweeney replied that Hughes was a married man with five, children who had been in Hamilton about six weeks. Nothing was known against him. “I regard it as very grave for anyone to lintterfere with, the freedom and rights of little children who cannot look after themselves,” said His Worship, in sentencing the accused to one month’s imprisonment. “You have given way to acts of impassioned familiarity, acts wide/ cannot be tolerated in the community.” The accused, on hearing the sentence, remarked that he did not care if the sentence had been four years.