OFFENCE AGAINST GIRL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 710, 9 July 1929, Page 13

OFFENCE AGAINST GIRL

PROBATION FOR YOUNG MAN “AN UNUSUAL CASE” Because it was noi the ordinary type of case and Frederick Henry Norton previously had a good character, he was admitted, by Mr. Justice Kennedy in the Supreme Court yesterday. t«> three years* probation for unlawful carnal knowledge. Admitting the seriousness of the charge, counsel asserted that, although Norton had been unwittingly led into conflict with the law*, he had submitted the position commendable. He had not attempted to submit the girl to any ordeal, and had no wish to bring more trouble on her parents. Counsel remarked, however, that the evidence showed that the prisoner had good reason to believe the girl to be over lti years of age. and the testimony also indicated that the girl had I consented. His Honour intimated that he would | accept the view that consent had been i given. | Counsel applied for the suppression of the name, stating that it had not previously been published. His Honour declined to grant this request. In passing sentence, he described it as an unusual case. Although the girl was not more than 14, she hau been described by a medical man as looking anything betwen 1 o and 2.j, and others had placed her age at between 16 and IS. He, therefore, accepted prisoner’s statement that he thought the girl was 17 or IS. No violence had been used by prisonc r. Had Norton been a year younger, he. no doubt, could have successfully defended the charge against him. In view of the probation officer’s report, his Honour admitted prisoner to three years’ probation, on condition that he paid £4 14s costs.