ROBERT OULAGI (SENTENCE). (Hansard, 3 March 1925)

§ Mr. SCURR
I desire to call attention to the case of Robert Oulagi, which was recently dealt with at the Old Bailey.

§ Mr. SPEAKER
I think it is well, at the beginning, that I should remind the hon. Member that we do not allow, except on a properly tabled Motion, criticism in this House of any Judge. I do not think that that is the point which the hon. Member is going to raise, but I think it is just as well to say, at the beginning, that he must only deal with the question within the competency of the Home Secretary.

§ Mr. SCURR
I was not going to criticise the Judge, but the point I want to raise is in connection with the examination by the medical officer. I do not dispute that that was a considered opinion by Dr. Reece, but I submit that so far as this young lad is concerned he has been of a peculiar temperamental habit. At times he was normal, but at other times he was absolutely abnormal, and I have evidence that he has been exceedingly erratic and got into the habit of thinking of things which he attempted to do, which showed that he was suffering from abnormality. This is shown by the way in which he wished to destroy things in the shop, and obviously he had no mental balance. For these reasons I appeal to the Home Secretary not to put this sentence into execution.
You cannot under any circumstances expect that you are going to effect a cure by this sort of punishment. It is a horrible punishment, and no one who has undergone it can have anything but the greatest possible resentment afterwards. I appeal to the Under-Secretary to take the course I have suggested. The question has been raised about the lad being of alien parentage. May I point out that the father is a Pole, that he served in the British Army during the War, and that he received his naturalisation free as a result of his services. Therefore, a sneer of that kind ought not to be put up. I ask the Home Secretary to take the whole matter into his consideration, and not let this horrible sentence he inflicted.

§ Mr. PETHICK-LAWRENCE
I agree with what my hon. Friend has just said in regard to this case. I am sure the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department will appreciate the fact that those who are making this appeal to him are every bit as much horrified by the crime perpetrated as anyone can be in 400 any part of the House, but our feeling is that in the peculiar abnormality which this lad has shown and which if there was time we could further illustrate, we feel that the infliction of this punishment can do nothing but accentuate the abnormality in this particular lad. We can understand that a medical officer examining the boy in prison would come to the conclusion that he was perfectly sane, because it is a peculiarity of this abnormality that for long periods those who suffer from it may be perfectly normal and fully their mental age, and yet at intervals they may have abnormal characteristics and show a very strange nervous condition which during these intervals makes them not responsible for their actions. No doubt the idea of the flogging penalty is that it is a deterrent, but I submit that the infliction of this very terrible punishment upon a boy whose very nervous condition makes him particularly unsuitable for its infliction, is very serious indeed, and we ask the Home Secretary to take into account, not merely the medical opinion of the boy at the particular moment when he may have been seen, but also the whole of the facts of his history, and judge his mental state by them. I had hoped that by this time I should have had a medical opinion which was promised me before this hour, but unfortunately, owing to the absence of the doctor, it has not yet arrived. I would ask the Under-Secretary, however, not to pronounce a final decision to-night, but to promise to take into consideration any evidence that reaches him between now and the infliction of the punishment, and, if he can, see his way to remit it, which I venture to hope he will be able to do.

§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Godfrey Locker-Lampson)
I rather regret that the hon. Member has raised this question after the reply which I gave to his question yesterday. I may say at once that, of course, there is nothing in the fact of this man being of alien parentage. What was his crime? This man entered the house of this woman, took her by the throat, knocked her down, and struck her several very heavy blows on the head. He then said he wanted money. He pushed her through the hall, where she fell down a couple of steps, and when she got up, having been 401 injured, she promised that she would give him some money if he would go away. She took him to her bedroom, where she opened a drawer and gave him all the money she had at the moment, amounting, I believe, to about 37s. Although he had obtained the money, he then tied this woman's hands together, and dragged her about the house into several other rooms in search of more money, and then returned her to her bedroom. He then forced her into a chair, he bound her into that chair, and bound the chair to the edge of the bed and kicked her. He then put some papers and books underneath the chair and set light to the bed, and then left the house; and when this woman was found she was unconscious. I should like to point out that he was defended by counsel and pleaded guilty. As the hon. Member knows, the Judge, in passing sentence upon him for what I may call this diabolical crime, said that if it had not been his youth—he is 18 years of age—he would have sentenced him to penal servitude for a very long term of years. The point made by the hon. Member opposite is that medical considerations are in his favour. So far as I can see the medical evidence is all the other way. We have had at the Home Office two very careful reports by the senior medical officer. I read an answer to the hon. Member yesterday. One report was to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the other was to the Governor of the prison. In the first report this is what the chief medical officer says: This lad has been under observation. I have carefully examined him and I have. read the depositions in the case. Oulagi is of very fair education in his class and he has retained what he learned at school better than most boys. He is in my opinion of more than average intelligence. His own account of his burglaries and his attack upon Eva Bragg shows that he has a per- 402 fect recollection of all the details. These facts, taker. together, seem entirely to negative the diagnosis of moral imbecility or what I thought was masked epilepsy, the only morbid condition which would fit in with hi3 statement about fits and irresponsibility. There is, in Oulagi's case, no evidence of epilepsy. I cannot come to any other conclusion than that Oulagi is quite sane and responsible for his actions. Then we have the report sent to the governor of the prison: From the medical point of view he is perfectly fit He is sane. He is in robust physical health and condition, and his general bodily and mental development is far in advance of his age. He is really a man and he is probably as well developed as the average man of Aryian race of 22 or 23. May I point out what hon. Members apposite do not quite realise, that this man has the right of appeal for 10 clear days from 26th February. Every facility will be given him to appeal. He may appeal without the slightest cost to himself, and any evidence he wishes to adduce on his appeal will be heard. Therefore, firstly there is absolutely no dispute as to the crime, which is a fiendish one. There is no dispute that the prisoner is guilty. It is clear, so far as the Home Office is concerned, that there is no medical evidence in his favour. The medical evidence is against him. It. is also perfectly clear that the Judge let him off a long term of penal servitude because of his youth, and lastly he has a right of appeal. The Home Office has very carefully considered the whole bearings of the question, and in view of all the circumstances, I am afraid there is no ground for the intervention of the Secretary of State.