SUNNYSIDE ASYLUM CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1138, 26 August 1913, Page 4

SUNNYSIDE ASYLUM CASE.

CHAPMAN SENTENCED TO

TWO YEARS.

Christchurch, August 23

The hearing of the charge against Joseph Martin Chapman of striking Charles Thomas McMeekin, an inmate of the Sunnyside Mental Hospital, was concluded at the Supreme Court to-day. After a retirement of forty-five minutes the jury returned a verdict of “Guilty.” Mr Donnelly asked that in view of the good record of the accused during the nine years in which he had served as assistant at the Mental Hospital some clemency should be shown. He had come from Home with high credentials and during his service at the hospital he had not had a mark against him. His Honour said he would have been glad to have moderated the sentence, but be had to consider the nature of the offence, which was a most serious one. Accused had been convicted of a brutally savage assault on a mentally defective patient under his charge. His Honour said that some of the observations and language used by the accused in connection with the deceased justified him in taking a strong view of the matter. The assault had evidently been committed by accused in a fit of passion. The evidence fell short of proof that the conduct of the accused had actually been responsible for or had accelerated the death of this man, but it had been done under circumstances in which a person under his charge had been unable to defend himself. His Honour, therefore, felt he was only doing his duty in imposing the maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment.