SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1922, Page 7

SUPREME COURT.

SENTENCES PASSED. THE OPUNAKE CASE. FIVE YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT. With a record which Mr. Justice Chapman classed as “disreputable,” James Collingwood appeared in the dock at the Supreme Court, New Plymouth', yesterday for sentence on the charge of indecently assaulting a little girl at Opunake, an offence of which he was found guilty by the jury on Thursday. “For a good many years nearly every year you have been convicted of something,” said th 6 Judge to Collingwood. “There are fo’/r convictions of theft against you, though none of them is very serious, and there are convictions for vagrancy and that kind of thing which show you to be a disreputable character. I daresay it is true that these offences were committed when you were under the influence of liquor. Now you have committed an offence which I regard most seriously. You set up the defence that you did not know what you were doing because you were drunk. That means that you might go and do the same thing again. It is the kind of offence with which I always deal severely, because these children ought Io be in a position to play about open places without being assaulted by men. Their parents can't afford to pay nurses to look after them as parents better off can afford to do. There are not sufficient police to keep patrol everywhere, and it has to he left to the good sense and good conduct of the public to see that children are protected. When a man is brought before me and says he can’t help himself I must put that man under protection. You are sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labor.”

GIVEN A CHANCE. After being in custody since Tuesday while sentence was being considered, Eric A. Beere, who had pleaded guilty to charges of forging and uttering a cheque, was again before His Honor. Mr. O’Dea intimated that the sum of £l4 which had been involved had been repaid by Beere’s father. “You have received a good character and have been well recommended,” said His Honor, and I think the proper course is to give you a chance free of the imputation of anything more than an actual conviction. I think I may be stretching a point considerably because I have had to deal with a good many of these cases of haphazard forgeries, but as a rule there has been something like systematic conduct. I have left the matter undecided for two or three days in order to consider what I ought to do, and 1 have considered the matter from the point of view of the requirements of the public, and to some reasonable extent your own position, the position of your family, and the prospect of your becoming a good citizen. I also wished you to spend a few days in prison to give you an idea of what it would be like. I hope that while it may have done you some good it will result in no feeling of anxiety on your part to go back there. In the circumstances I have decided to order you to come up for sentence when called upon at any time within two years.” Explaining the conditions to accused, His Honor pointed out that he had no rights; he was not even on. probation, and the police could bring him before the Court at any time, if he was misbehaving. He advised Beere to lead a quiet life and not to be seen fooling about with larrikins or hanging about racecourses. As to the cost the Government had been put to over the prosecution, an order would be made requiring Beere to pay £5 5s within the two years, anH His Honor thought the sooner Beere paid it the better it would be. He could easily earn sufficient to meet this.