“SHEER STUPIDITY”

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 54, 27 November 1926, Page 8

“SHEER STUPIDITY”

YOUTH’S UNACCOUNTABLE

THEFTS

Described by his counsel (Mr. E. Parry) as a person who appeared to be suffering from a complaint generally known as kleptomania, a youth seventeen years of age, by name Arthur David Horace Porter, who had pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court to three charges of breaking, entering, and theft, appeared for sentence before His Honour Mr. Justice Alpers in the Supreme Court yesterday. Air. Parry told His Honour that he had some difficulty in addressing him on his client's behalf, owing to the fact that there was particularly little to bo said for him. He was a very overgrown youth for his age, being six feet in height, and appeared in many ways to be of great physical, and of very little mental, development. One of the youth’s thefts was that of a box of cigarettes. He was a non-smoker, and his apparent reason for this theft was to obtain the cigarette cards contained in the box. Other articles which he had stolen were a box of powdet, a bottle of scent, and a florin. The thefts were all very small, said counsel, and he seemed quite unable to control himself in that direction, and unaware that he had done anything wrong. Some attempt had been made to get the youth admitted to the Navy, but counsel understood that this had been a failure. Air. Parry said that he was . not going to ask His Honour to admit the prisoner to probation, because it was the , opinion of the police, and also of the youth’s parents, that probation would be of no use to him, and would not improve him in any way. The only thing he would ask His Honour to do was to have the youth detained in a Borstal institute for the shortest period that was possible, namely, two years.

His Honour: I think a lad of that age would want to be kept there for quite a considerable time, in order that the training he gets may have some effect on him. The actual period of time that he will remain there is not in my hands, however. I can only sentence him to a period not exceeding so much, and the duration of that period is in the hands of the Minister of Justice. “I am sorry to see a lad like you in this position,” His Honour told the prisoner, “for I believe it is due to sheer stupidity rather than to any criminal intent, or to any such intent of which you cannot rid yourself. I am going to send you to a Borstal institute. I want you to understand that that is not a prison. It is true that you are detained there, and that you cannot get away until you are allowed to, but it is partly a school. That is, it is a place where you will be put to work, and will do something which I hope you will find interesting. It is a place where the steady habits you will form, and the freedom from temptation, will have the effect of making you come to your senses. I cannot quite make out what your motive was. but I am very willing to believe that it was not the motive of a criminal, and that you are not going to be a criminal. You have overgrown your strength, and I have no doubt that in a few years you will be a decent chap. “I want you to understand that I am not sending you to prison,” His Honour repeated. “You understand?’’ The prisoner, Yes, sir. His Honour: You are not being put on probation, because that has been tried once, and did not do any good. The prisoner was ordered to be detained in a Borstal institute for a period not exceeding two years.