CHRISTCHURCH CRIMINAL SITTINGS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 48, 20 November 1907, Page 3

CHRISTCHURCH CRIMINAL SITTINGS.

(BY TELEGRAPH—rRESS ASSOCIATION.) Christchurch, November 18. The criminal sittings of the Supremo Court opened to-day.' There were seven criminal charges preferred against ten persons and threo prisoners coming up for sentence. Mr. Justico Chapman, in his charge to the Grand Jury, said lie was pleased that its duties would be light. There were eight indictablo cases, only one of which should givo tho jury much trouble. Ho was pleasod to notice practically an absence of serious sexual crimoj not that there had been very marked reason to complain in tho past in Canterbury, but in some parts of the Dominion it had become (juite a noticeable feature in periodic criminal calendars. Tho promptitude with which this class of crime had been dealt with in recent years scorned now to be telling; and he thought it might be be- , coming apparent that there was less of it now than in the past. One case on tho calondar, however, approximated that class of crime—a case of a young man charged with unlawfully entering a house with the object of committing a crime, in which there was so'mo suggestion that the act pointed to his intention, or partly formed intention, of some act of immorality. His Honour dealt shortly with other cases for hearing. A youth named William Fred Borland was convictod of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, but sentence was deferred till Wednesday. David Llewellyn Mooro, who was charged with having discharged a shot gun at his wife with intent to do grievous bodily harm, was convicted of common assault, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. Edward Mills, Joseph Francis, Donnelly, and Harry Witte, were convicted of assaulting and robbing William Walton, of Martinborough, Wairarapa, during carnival week. Donnelly was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, and the other two to two years each.

Martha Tainui, a young Maori woman, was charged with being an •habitual criminal, having thirty-seven convictions for theft, forgery, and false pretences against her. Sho was sent to a reformatory under the Habitual Criminals Act. Leonard ' Burke, seventeen yenrs old, was considered to be mentally defective, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, to bo kept apart from other prisoners. William Allison, for breaking and entering, and attempted rape, was sentenced to five years' hard labour. Christchuroh, November 19. In the Supreme Court to-day, Lilian Fanny Hobbs was charged with disposing of the body of her dead infant, with intent to conceal the fact that she had been delivered of the child. Sho pleaded not guilty. Tho facts were that accused was employed in a restaurant, and that during that time one of the other girls noticed that sho was pregnant. Tho body of the child was found in a lavatory after accused had been supposed to have been suffering from an attack of cholera. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Rowland Wilfred Langdown was acquitted on a charge of making a false' statement to the • Registrar of Marriages concerning tho ag-i of his wife. James M'lntyre was sentenced to three years' imprisonment ior burglary, and Frank Taylor to eighteen months' imprisonment.