MOTORIST FINED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1939, Page 5

MOTORIST FINED

LICENCE CANCELLED

NEGLIGENT DRIVING CHARGE

A fine of £25 was imposed by Mr. Justice Reed in the Supreme Court today on Leonard Jacobs Stokes, a* railway employee, aged 45, found guilty yesterday afternoon of negligent driving causisng injury on October 28. The prisoner was allowed six months in which to pay, in default two months imprisonment; his licence was cancelled, and he was prohibited from obtaining another for two years. Mrs. Jessie Smart, aged'7l, and two girls, aged six and seven respectively, were knocked down in Cambridge Terrace. Mrs. Smart suffering two broken legs and later dying. The jury was in retirement for four hours, and added to the verdict a very strong recommendation to mercy. Addressing the Court today, Mr. Evan Parry said the jury might not necessarily have thought that the pedestrians were knocked down on the pedestrian crossing at the corner of Cambridge Terrace and Buckle Street (as alleged by the Crown), but still have thought that the prisoner was negligent. His Honour said he^proposed to take that view. The pi-isoner. drove too near to the pedestrians, particularly so as they were an old woman and two young children —he should have been in the position to stop and avoid them. He would take into account the prisoner's good record as a citizen, his driving record over nearly thirty years, and the jury's recommendation. The object of punishment was both punitive for the offender and deterrent tor others. In this case he thought the punitive element had been carried out by the prisoner's having to go through the proceedings, and he proposed to treat the prisoner leniently. Sentence was then passed.