OFFENCE AGAINST CHILD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 895, 12 February 1930, Page 13

OFFENCE AGAINST CHILD

“You will have to be detained in prison to pay the penalty for your disgusting crime,” said Mr. Justice Herdman*, in the Supreme Court today, to Alan Alexander Cuthbertson, who had been convicted of indecent assault on a little girl.

Mr. Dickson referred to the exemplary character the prisoner had borne up to the present. Counsel claimed that while the court owed a duty to the State and to protect children, it had a similar obligation to old men who might be suffering from a physical disability as was the prisoner, whose affliction should be treated as' medical and not criminal. Counsel suggested that the prisoner should not be gaoled but should be placed under the care of a relative. His Honour said that d medical examination of the prisoner disclosed that he was not suffering from any complaint likely to increase his sexuality. “You behaved in a disgusting manner to the little girl, and I don’t propose to shock the cars, of those listening by detailing your acts,” said the Judge. “Why should I. because you are 61, allow you to go free to be a menace? It would be ridiculous to liberate men in that way,” he added, in ordering prisoner to be detained for reformative purposes for Wvo years.