LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 44, 27 January 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At the Auckland Police Court today (states the Press Association), Mr Fraser, S.M., gave his reserved judgment test case on the liability of a man who yields to solicitation on the street by a woman of ill-fame. Action was taken under section 53 of the Justices of the Peace Act, which makes any person who counsels, aids, abets, or procures the commission of an offence punishable summarily, and equally liable with the chief offender. Mr Fraser said the English cases quoted by the police showed the section to be extraordinarily wide, but it also showed that the section was the modern application' of the principle of accessory before the act. In typical soliciting cases, the offence was completed immediately the woman spoke and before the man could reply, either favorably or otherwise,, consequently the offence was completed before the man came into it, and the man could not he convicted as an accessory. . if charge was dismissed.