ILLEGAL OPERATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 69, 14 November 1912, Page 6

ILLEGAL OPERATIONS.

KNOX GETS FIVE , YEARS

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, November 14

William Knox, who was found guilty of performing an illegal operation, was to-day sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labour. The Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), in sentencing the prisoner (who has a wife and two children) said there was no evidence that Knox had been guilty of the crime in a systematic manner, dtliei’Wise* °the v Sentence " would have been much severer. Some girls appeared to think that it was more shameful to give birth to an illegitimate child than to undergo an operation of th© class in question. It was unfortunate for girls if they fell away, but it was a thousand times better that they should have illegitimate children than submit to operations of this kind. Society should recognise this. The Legislature had recognised the gravity of the crime by making it punishable by imprisonment for life. Had it not been for the rule laid down, His Honor said lie might have been inclined to inflict a lower sentence, hut looking at all the circumstances ho did not think he could.