CONTEMPT OF COURT

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21098, 27 April 1940, Page 15 (Supplement)

CONTEMPT OF COURT

WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

COMMENT ON PROSECUTIONS PLEA OF IGNORANCE (By Telegraph.—Press Association) AUCKLAND, Friday Donald McCarthy, printer and pub- i lisher of The People’s Voice, a weekly j newspaper, appeared before Mr Justice Ostler in the Supreme Court on a motion for committal for contempt of court, in that he caused to be published on March 29 and on subsequent dates, in two issues of The People’s Voice, comment concerning prosecutions against five men, which prosecutions were not tried until April 12, which comment was contempt of the Magistrate’s Court inasmuch as at the time of publication it was calculated to prejudice, obstruct and interfere with the due administration of justice. Mr V. R. Meredith and Mr N. I. Smith appeared for the Crown and Mr J. Hogben for defendant. Mr Hogben said defendant admitted the offence and offered a sincere apology. The passage in the first issue of the paper was intended tc be a campaign for funds. After hearing counsel His Honour said he had no doubt there had been gross contempt, calculated to influence the course of justice. Mr Hogben had said the offence occurred through ignorance of the law, and defendant had given an apology. There was no proof to the contrary, and he did not think it a case for imprisonment, or indeed for an exemplary fine. Justice would be done by issuing a warning to defendant that any further offence of a like kind would bring heavy punishment from the court, and ordering him to pay costs ten guineas.