ATTEMPTED MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3689, 10 September 1927, Page 4

ATTEMPTED MURDER.

LIFE SENTENCE FOR. YOUNG MAN.

Oamaru, September 7.

About three months ago a young man named Allan Symon was charged in the Magistrate’s Court with attempted murder of his brother Herbert. The facts, as stated in the Lower Court, were that Allan Symon had been annoyed by a small boy while gardening, and had been prevented by his brother from chastising the boy. Later he had shot his brother in the neck with a pea rifle. Since he was committed for trial he has been in a mental hospital.

Symon appeared before Mr. Justice Sim in the Supreme Court this morning and pleaded guilty. The superintendent of the mental hospital reported that the prisoner was not of very high intelligence and recommended a term of reformative detention to instil discipline. In imposing sentence; His Honour ,said that he would not take the responsibility of imposing reformative detention with the possibility that the, prisoner would, after release, shoot someone else. He was a danger to society. His Honour thought that the best course would be to impose the maximum penalty, and the Prisons Board could review the case, and, if necessary, send the prisoner to a Borstal Institute. He was sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for life.