SEXUAL OFFENCES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 42, 13 November 1917, Page 6

SEXUAL OFFENCES

TERRIBLE LIST OF CASES AT AUCKLAND. By Telegraph—Press Association.

Auckland, November 12. 11l liia charge to'the grand jury in the Supreme Court to-day, Mr.'Justice'Hoiking deplored the fnct that of twenty persons charged, twenty cases itere of a sexual nature, three being unnatural offences, two offences against children, and one of incest. This terrible list, he behoved, was due to the absence of certainty of conviction. Ho was struck br the ; frequency of the excuse that the culprit believed that the girl was over age. ■ His Honour suggested thaS cases against children should be tried summarily before three Magistrates, as during tho lapso of time between the sitting of tho Police Court and the Supreme Court session children were liable to forget the main facts of cases. Further, ho suggested that the existing law allowing a jury to acquit a man of an offence hgninst a girl, if it we shown that he believed she was of age,, should be renealed. It had already been repealed in Great Britain. The grand jury reduced the cliai'Re against Hannali Matilda Dalbn to manslaughter, in connection with the alleged use of an instrument. It also returned a bill against Percy Norman Henry of being a party to'the manslaughter.