Criticism Of Delay In Bringing Cruelty Charge

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 63, 12 August 1965, Page 5

Criticism Of Delay In Bringing Cruelty Charge

Delay in bringing a criminal case before the Conrt was deplored by Mr G. J. Donne, S,M., in the Taupo Magistrate's Court this week. The case before the Court was one in which a woman appeared for sentence on a charge of illtreating a child, which occurred at Tokaanu on February 28. The woman, Nani Ann Hopkins, 23, Tokaanu housewife, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment. On February 28, Hopkins had left a young child tied up to a tree for some hours. The child was taken in by a neighbour, who had found it tied up, cold and in a fllthy condition. Mr Donne said it was n/)t ea$y to credit that a woman conld leave a child in that way. He also said he was concerned at the delay in a prosecution being brought.

The offence had occurred at the end of February. It was known by the Child Welfare Division, but it was not until the end of May that an information cou|d be laid for a criminal offence — when the police were informed. It had taken all that time for the appropriate authority to be notified of the commission of the crime, Mr Donne said. He added that such matters should be brought before a court without delay. It was in the public interest that anyone, or a Government department, who snspected that a crime had been committed, to see that investigationjg were made by the police. "They should have been informed by the child welfare officer as soon as it happened," Mr Donne said. Sergeant T. A. A. Marson explained that the case

came to the attention of the Child Welfare Division, Taumarunui, on March 1. The matter went before another court ori March 19 and was then referred to the police. Immediate inquiries had been made, but there had been delays. Then the cause of the delay might well be shared by the division and the police, Mr Donne said. TAUPO TIMES CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING CHEAP — EFFECTIVE PHONE 653 before 9 A.M.