ABORTIONIST SENTENCED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2618, 11 August 1923, Page 3

ABORTIONIST SENTENCED.

TO SEVEN YEARS. Dunedin, August 10. James Reynolds Hayne was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for procuring abortion. Mr Hanlon, for the prisoner, gave his age at 71. He stated that the prisoner was crippled with rheumatism and suffered from a bad heart in which circumstances lie asked the Judge to give the utmost weight to the jury’s recommendation to mercy. * Mr Justice Sira stated that he always treated the jury’s recommendation with respect, but according to the police report it was common knowledge that Hayne was an abortionist and one of some skill who several times had stood trial. In view of the police report and the circumstances in the present case, his plain duty was to impose a substantial term, which would have been much longer, but for the jury’s recommendation. His Honour added, addressing the prisoner: “Hitherto juries have displayed a curious reluctance to convict in your case, however complete the evidence may be. Happily that reluctance has been overcome, and at length twelve men have been found who were prepared to observe the oath taken and return a verdict according to the evidence. Dunedin has been redeemed from the reproach of being a city where a notorious abortionist was able to carry on with impunity and laugh at the law.”