A REVOLTING CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10156, 4 February 1911, Page 5

A REVOLTING CASE.

JUDGE SPEAKS STRONGLY. SENTENCES PRISON hA TO SEVEN. YEARS. By Telegravh—Press Assoctaiion. A middle aged coloured"man named Joseph: Banneker,. Edger,. a music teacher, dock/ in r tlie r Supreme Coiirt in, answer to a charge of a revolting' nature. The court was cleared by the order of his Honour Mr Justice Chapman, 1 and publication of the evidence was forbidden. The jury retired at p.m.., and returned at 2.45 with a, verdict of guilty. ■ > The focused had nothing to say why sentence should not be passed vuponip/'. ■.■;..'■. His Honour: "You have very pro-: . perly been-eonvictedv There can be no doubt whateyer of the truth of ihe story of the girt I tell you at once that if I had the power to sen-tence-you jto imprisonment for life I would do it without hesitation. I have some doubt as to whether I ought not to inflict punishment of the .lash in addition . to -imprisonment. I abstain from doing so, as I intend to sentence you to the longest term the law allows. The. crime you stand convicted of was accompanied by circumstances of brutality and beastiality such as I have seldom had" the misfortune to listen to. I don't wish to say more than that the sentence of the court is that you be imprisoned, with hard labour, for seven years, and this to be followed by,'an additional ten years of reformative imprisonment in the terms of the Statute;''