FOXTON ASSAULT CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 951, 7 February 1911, Page 3

FOXTON ASSAULT CASE.

HAMILTON SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS. At yesterday’s sitting of the Supreme Court at Palmerston N., E. A. Hamilton, who pleaded guilty in the Bower Court a few days ago to a charge of assault with intent on the road to the beach at Foxton, appeared for sentence.

Mr H. Cooper, who appeared for the prisoner, asked for leniency, firstly on account of his youth, he being under 19 years of age, and secondly that the girl, on whom the assault had been committed, had suffered no harm. He hoped his Honour would see his way to send Plamilton to the reformatory prison at Invercargill for a short period. Mr Cooper dwelt on the prisoner’s previous good character and on the fact that he had denied-that he had used any violence or threats to kill the girl. Mr Loughuan read the Probation Officer’s report, which stated inter alia that accused had previously had a good character, his greatest fault, according to bis employers, being a disinclination to work.

His Houour, in passing seutence, said that if the evidence of the girl was true the assault was a very violent one. He detailed the assault, and stated that there were marks on the girl’s throat, which showed that considerable violence had been used. It he was older Hamilton would deserve very severe punishment. It was a very bad case, and it was impossible to deal leniently with it. He had hesitated whether or not to impose the ordinary sentence and then to add a term in a reformatory prison, but had decided that he would sentence the prisoner to not more than five years’ imprisonment in a reformatory prison. It was impossible to make the sentence a short one, and it was only on account of his youth that the full sentence allowed by the law was not imposed. If he reformed sufficiently to satisfy the Prison Board he would be released before, or when his seutence had expired.