PLEA OF INNOCENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 810, 2 November 1929, Page 5

PLEA OF INNOCENCE

NOT ACCEPTED BY JUDGE UNNATURAL OFFENCES Striking a dramatic pose with bis arm raised above bis head, j Alfred Carter, aged 25, proclaimed ] his innocence of indecent assault on a boy, cm appearing for sentence before Mr. Justice Smith in the Supreme Court this morning. His'declaration, “As true as God, I gentlemen, I am not guilty,” was not accepted by the judge, who ordered him to be detained for reformative treatment for a period not exceeding three years. PLEA of mental deficiency was made by Mr. Noble, on behalf of the prisoner. Carter was still protesting his innocence, Mr. Noble said, but he could not discuss the verdict at this stage. The prisoner seemed to be weak mentally, but had never been before the courts for any offence. CONVICTION FOR THEFT His Honour: You mean any offence of this sort. The records showed a conviction for theft against accused, the judge added. Counsel apologised to the court for his statement, saying he had been misinstructed, that accused had no record, Mr. Hubble, assistant Crown Prosecutor, said that the evidence showed the offences were more or less planned. “Do you admit a conviction, for theft?” his Honour asked the prisoner. “I have never been convicted of theft in my life,” replied prisoner. "I did 14 days’ gaol for failure to pay maintenance.” “I was not going to take the conviction for theft into account,” his Honour told Carter. The judge assured the prisoner he would take steps to ascertain if Hie record were correct and, at present, he believed it was. In passing sentence, the judge told prisoner he regarded him as weak mentally. He was satisfied with the jury’s verdict and that Carter was guilty of the offence, he proceeded. UNNATURAL OFFENCE “It is a most unnatural offence that one cannot understand, except in persons that are mentally and morally diseased,” said the judge, in sentencing John Robert McMullan, aged .39, to three years’ reformative treatme'nt for indecent assault on a boy. The mental deficiency plea was also advanced by Mr. Ray, on behalf of the prisoner. Counsel explained that McMullan, who wafc a returned soldier, hacl suffered severely from shell-shock and had been injured by a falling tree after his return from the war. Believing prisoner was mentally weak, his Honour ordered him to be dptainpfl fnr rpfnrmativp nnrnnooo ov.

pressing the hope that McMullan would never again appear before the court for an offence of this type.