THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1943 WHAT OF THE VICTIMS?

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3275, 14 June 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1943 WHAT OF THE VICTIMS?

Since the amendment of the Crimes Act in 1941 by which the death sentence and punishment by flogging were abolished members of the Judiciary have on more than one occasion commented on their inability to impose sentences which the circumstances of the crime have undeniably warranted. In sentencing a prisoner recently to imprisonment for five years on a charge of attempted rape, the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), after describing the offence as one of the most shocking he had seen in about fifty years’ association with the administration of criminal law, made some reference to the action of the Legislature in so amending the law that the prisoner was able to escape with a much lighter sentence than might otherwise have been the case. The Chief Justice made. it clear that he had no alternative •but to administer the law as it is written and to accept an assumption that the law as laid down by Parliament expresses the will' of the people, women as well as men. Then, addressing the prisoner, he added the following words ■ “As far as I am concerned I must leave it at that. But you are in a different position: you are at liberty to rejoice in the reflection that the law shows much more tenderness and sympathy for you than you showed for the poor, unfortunate, elderly blind woman you almost throttled and then attempted to ravish. It is my bounden duty, to impose a sentence which will not be light, but I doubt whether it is not lighter than you deserve.” Such an utterance from the Chief Justice speaks for itself. Its implications should be carefully studied and weighed by the public who should ask themselves whether the criminal law as at present written gives expression to their will —whether the tenderness to criminals of this type has not been made, at the cost of adequate protection of the victims of crime.