YOUTHS SENT TO GAOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 967, 9 May 1930, Page 10

YOUTHS SENT TO GAOL

CHRISTCHURCH JUDGE’S COMMENTS OFFENCE AGAINST FEMALE Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Today. Prisoners sentenced in the Supreme Court were:—Ronald Brown, Albert James William Grennell and Raymond George Milton Caesar, all youths employed as stable bands, five years’ imprisonment for rape. The Crown said the crime was the very worst in its class. Arthur Smith, aged 39, formerly a hotelkeeper at Lyttelton, convicted of false pretences, must come up for sentence when called on, a condition of the sentence was that he make full restitution. Gideon Scott, aged GO, for selling liquor illegally at Ashburton, was sentenced to six months’ gaol. It was his 12th offence. In dealing with the rape case, Mr. Justice Adams said that ou account of the prisoners’ youth and a recommendation to mercy, he had given very anxious consideration to the case. SHORT OF MURDER The offence, short of murder, was one of the gravest under the criminal law. It was absolutely necessary, in the interests of virtue, purity and the safety of women, that in every case where an offence was clearly proved, the court should impose a sentence that would encourage the hope of a warning to others. It was impossible, in tl;e present case, to do anything except impose a substantial sentence which, however, would be lighter than usual on account of the prisoners* youth and the jury’s recommendation.