SENTENCE VARIED

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21259, 1 November 1940, Page 6

SENTENCE VARIED

ASSAULT ON BAILIFF TWO MONTHS IN PRISON APPEAL SUCCEEDS j Judgment in the case in which Leonard Vincent Browne, wellborer, lof Te Rapa (Mr A. L. Tompkins) | sought modification of a sentence of j 12 months’ detention in a Borstal institution, imposed by Mr S. L. Pater- ; son, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, i Hamilton, was given by Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court, Hamilton, today. The sentence was imposed by the magistrate when Browne pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting the court bailiff, Michael ; McCormack, while the latter was atI tempting to serve a substituted summons on Browne’ father. Respond- | ent was represented in the Supreme | Court by Mr J. R. Fitz Gerald. "I have considered this matter very carefully,” said His Honour. “The case is a very grave one, for the victim of the assault was a court 1 officer, well up in years, who was set | upon by three lusty young men. The accused was evidently a self-ap-j pointed man to administer punishi ment on an officer who, in his unI obtrusive way, was carrying out his : duty. It has been stated that accused’s mother was annoyed by the J officer’s visits, but I cannot see that I that has anything to do with it. I “Browne was very fortunate that jhe was charged under the section which was actually brought into operation, for had he been charged under a section of the Crimes Act he might have been liable to a sentence running into years. It seems to me that the circumstances 1 of the crime would justify every day 1 of the sentence that was imposed, i “However, he is a young man of I good characer and with a trade at his command, and these circumstances do not make the case one to which the Borstal Institutes Act is ; applicable,” said His Honour. “That ’ ; being so, I am bound by the law . | rather than by the circumstances ; ; surrounding the offence. I will vary 1 the sentence and will reduce it to one of two months’ imprisonment.”