SUPREME COURT.

Evening Star, Issue 4244, 3 October 1876, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

Monday, October 2. (Before His Honor Mr Justice Williams and a special jury.)

PERJURY. Robert Dickenson, defended byMrDenniston, was acquitted of a charge of committing perjury in the Resident Magistrate's Court, Dunedin, on August 5.

Tuesday, October 3.

SENTENCES. James Butler, alias Donnelly (26), who yesterday pleaded guilty to six charges of burglary, was brought up for sentence. The Crown Prosecutor, in answer to his Honor, as to whether prisoner's antecedents were known, said that prisoner was convicted in the Justices' Court of two small charges at the time of the committal of these offences.

Prisoner handed the following statement to his Honor : *

I have to acknowledge my gu>lt, and do not desire to excuse it. I myself can too clearly see the magnitude and meanness of my crime to hope to make it appear less in the eyes of others. I was a stranger iu a strange country, unfortunate, unwillmgly out of employment, in distress, and suffered myself to be led away. This was my condition. I share it as a matter of fact, for I am aware of its utter worthlessness as a plea. I make no defence, and do not ask you to stint the full justice of my punishment. But, your Honor, while Ido not deprecate punishment and justice, I do not venture to ask for mercy. lam a young man, and I yet hope to retrieve even this disgrace. lam not one of those criminals from practice and by inclination which society dreads. In becoming a criminal I rebelled against myself, and my own mind and soul seconds the law in my punishment. "While I am willing to bow to the just penalty of the law, I humbly hope that if your Honor can see fit or expedient to shorten the actual term of my punishment by adding to its rigor and severity, you will be so far merciful to me and do so. lam yet of that age when I can, if I may, still hope in the future, and I venture to trust that your Honor will b> deal with me that, while I may be justly punished, I may not be deprived of the hope that the fairest and best and most energetic of my future years will be spared to me. My own sense of my position, my sense of how I must appear to others, makes me to hesitate to say that I have felt contrition. Some glimmerings of it might ap • pear to your Honor from the fact that I have submitted to my position with patience, and that although I might, with some hopes of success, have denied part of my crime, I havo fully, and of my own free will, acknowledged all. I have rendered all the assistance within my power to repair the mischief I had done in restoring or causing to be restored all the property that had been taken. I trust that your Honor will pity my hopes of a, redeemed future and extend some mercy to me. My heart is not callous and hardened by crime, but softened by hope that I trust will not be crushed out of it. Recollect, sir, it is not leniency I ask but mercy : that your Honor will inflict such a penalty as shall be vigorous and severe, and a well-deserved punishment, while still I may Hot be weighed down by the despairing misery of knowing that the V eßt, the most valuable, and the most redeemable of my future years shall be wasted in the living death of a prison.

I His Honor : Prisoner, Robert Butler, you have pleaded guilty to six indictments which have been found against you—one indictment for burglary, two for housebreaking, and three for larceny. I have read the statement tbat you forwarded to me; and, as I have just now been informed by the Crown Prosecutor, nothing against you was known before you committed these crimes. You ask me to take into consideration your age, your position, and your future. You say that you have suffered yourself to be led away, and that you are not hardened in crime. That may be so> but at the same time the law must be vindicated, and a sufficiently severe punishment must be inflicted. It was not one isolated case, but throughout your conduct appears to have had the indication of commencing a career of crime. I shall, however, in passing sentence take into consideration that there has been nothing against you hitherto, and that none of the crimes you have committed have been accompanied with violence. The sentence of the Court is that you be kept to penal servitude in the Colony of New Zealand for four years.

Charles Henry Hall (22), who pleaded guilty to forgery yesterday, was next placed in the dock. In answer to the usual question,

Prisoner' said: I have nothing to say excepting that I am a new arrival in the Colony, having only come here about two months before I forged the first cheque. I was walking down Princes street when I found a pocket-book in the evening. I was partly under the influence of liquor, and I pulled, the book out of my pocket and forged a cheque on the firm of Gillies and Street. I never thought of doing it before—it was not premeditated at all. I have nothing to say in defence of the other two charges. lam very sorry for what I have done, and regret it exceedingly. Prisoner was sentenced to three years' penal servitude.

James Robertson (28), convicted the previous day of attempting to commit bestiality, still asserted his innocence of the crime. His Honor : The sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoned in the common gaol of Dunedin for two years and kept to hard labor.

John Lewis Home (31), convicted of three charges of forgery, was next brought up for sentence.

Prisoner: I wish your Honor, in passing sentence, to take three things into consideration. First, during the twelve years and over I have been in New Zealand no previous charges have been made against me; second, all were uttered under the same impulse aad at the same time—in fact within one hour of ! each ether—in the absence of anything like premeditation. In the third place, I have a wife in ill-health and a child a few weeks old wholly unprovided for. His Honor said the crime prisoner had committed was a great deal too common in this Colony. While he sat on the Bench he was determined that when cases of forgery were brought before him he would inflict punishments that would act as warnings to others. Prisoner would receive the same punishment as was given in a previous case of forgery—throe years' penal servitude. INCITING TO FORGE. Robert Dutton Lee (undefended) was charged with inciting John Lewis Home to commit a forgery at Oamaru on September 2. There were two counts against tho prisoner —the (ust charging him with being an j accessory before the forgery by prisoner Home of a cheque for the sum of L 7 10s ; j and the second with being an accessory to the uttering of the same cheque. The case for the Qrswn was that Home and prisoner were on terms of grea,t; insmaoy, and that the prisoner frequently visited the ,

other's house, taking drink with him* Mrs Home said that prisoner instigated her husband to commit the forgeries for which he had that morning been sentenced, procuring a disguise for him while he uttered the cheques, and helping him to share the plunder. The Crown Prosecutor explained the law. The jury must be satisfied that prisoner had either moved, incited, aided, abetted, counselled, or procured Home to forge the bill before they convicted him. The jury returned a verdict of "not guilty." STEALING FROM A STORE. Ah Youk was convicted of stealing money and goods from a store at Arrowtown, and was sent to gaol for two years. LARCENY. George Anderson was indicted for having at Port Chalmers, on May 30, stolen a bag containing goods and chattels, the property of Joseph Holland. Mr Joyce defended prisoner, who pleaded "Not guilty." [Left sitting.]