SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 119, 6 February 1918, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

CRIMINAL SESSIONS The criminal sessions of the Supreme Court were continued yesterday before His Honour Mr. Justice Hosking. Mr. P. S. K. Macassey appeared for the Crown. A FLIMSY CASE. John Carrig, a well-built young man pleaded not guilty to a charge of having indecently assaulted a male. Sir. H. F. O'Leary conducted the defence. '. In his address to the jury' Mr. O'Leary submitted that the ' accused was the victim of mere spleen on the part of the complainant, and that the case was trumped-up from the start to finish. The complainant was a convicted thief, and (said counsel) a depraved person. His Honour, in summing up, referred to the fact that the case against Carrig depended wholly upon the uncorroborated testimony of the complainant. The evidence was in such an unsatisfactory state that it -would be dangerous to convict upon it. His Honour did not.think that the jury should have any difficulty in coming to a decision. The jury immediately returned a verdict of not guilty, and Carrig was discharged!.' V SEVEN YEARS' HARD LABOUR. . Roderick M'Kenzie, alias Robert Morton, pleaded not guilty to a chargo of having attempted to commit an unnatural offence. He was not represented by counsel. The jury, after a short retirement, returned a verdict of guilty. . Asked if he had anything to say before being sentenced, the accused urged that he was an old man and had done something towards opening up the country. Accused had a record of previous convictions. He was sentenced to seven years' hard labour. ■'Ik MAN ATTHE' WINDOW. Arthur Childs • Dubourg Collins was tried on a charge of being a rogue and a vagabond. Mr. P. W. Jackson appeared for the prisoner. The Crown alleged that while certain young women were retiring to bed in a house in Weld Street, Wadestown, the accused peeped throngh the' bedroom window. The girls called their father, 'and the latter hurried out. and grappled with tho man, whe escaped,'leaving, his hat'behind. The girls and'tho father were certain that tho- accused. \yas the man who peeped through the window. Mr. Macassey said, in-, his opening,, that a new witness for the Crown would give evidence that he had seen the 'accused running batless along the street on the night in question. / ■ The defence consisted in an allegation that the accused was not the man wild committed the offence. The hearing was not concluded when the -Court rose. , ' — 11 i