SUPREME COURT. CRIMINAL SITTINGS. Sept. 1, 1853. Before Mr. Justice Stephen.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 844, 3 September 1853, Page 3

SUPREME COURT. CRIMINAL SITTINGS. Sept. 1, 1853. Before Mr. Justice Stephen.

A Sittings of the Supreme Court was held for the despatch of criminal business, when the following prisoners were tried. Joseph Brown, a soldier of the 65th Regiment, was indicted for an assault with intent, &c. on the person of Catherine Carty, a child of seven years old, the daughter of a soldier of the same regiment ; a second count charged him with a common assault. The offence was committed in the barrack, at Mount Cook. The Jury found him guilty on the second count, and he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and hard labour. Richard Smith, Thomas Anderson, and John Thirst, were indicted for stealing from the store of J. Sidney Smith at Thomdon, one blue cloth jacket and six black cloth coats, of the value of five pounds, The prisoner Richard Smith pleaded guilty, the prisoners Anderson and Thirst pleaded not guilty. Mr. King conducted the prosecution. It appeared from the evidence of William Corless, the principal witness, that he saw the prisoner Smith on Tuesday morning the 31st, enter the prosecutor s store, and suspecting something to be wrong, he watched the prisoners, and shortly after he saw Smith come out with a bundle of coats, which he gave to one of the other prisoners who were waiting outside. Immediately on the prisoners leaving, he went to Mr. Smith's store and gave the alarm, and then went in search of the police, by whom the prisoners were apprehended. The prisoners had thrown away the bundle of coats, but had the blue cloth jacket in their possession when they were apprehended. The prisoners were found guilty ; and all three were sentenced to transportation for ten years This case furnishes an apt illustration of the celerity with which sometimes punishment overtakes crime. Between the commission of the offence and the passing of the sentence, there was not an interval of more than thirtysix hours.