THE PETONE ASSAULT CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2012, 7 August 1919, Page 3

THE PETONE ASSAULT CASE.

DELANEY SENTENCED. fifteen Years and a FLOGGING. Wellington, This Morning. At the Wellington Supreme Court the charge against the young man, Roy Albert Delaney, of committing a criminal assault on a little girl at Petone, was heard. At the outset, Mr P. W. Jackson, who apepared for Delaney, admitted that there could be no doubt that a serious crime had been committed, but wliat he desired to prove was that the wrong man had been accused. It was a question of identity- # The principal witnesses were the little girl, aged nine years, who was the victim of the assault, and her brother, aged seven years. They wore both satisfied that Delaney was the man who accosted them at Petone on 12th July, while the little girl gave details of the assault. Other witnesses identified Delaney as the man seen with the children shortly before the offence was committed, and as the man who purchased sweets in a.shop named by the children. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty. Mr Justice Stringer sentenced Delaney to fifteen years’ hard labour, and ordered him to undergo ten lashes. His Honour stated that in all future cases of gross outrage on children he would order Hogging.