§ Mr. BRIANTasked the Home Secretary if his attention has been called to a case heard at Old Street Police Court, in November, 1924, when a man of 41 was convicted of indecent assault on two children of 11 and 12 years of age; if he is aware that one of these children was seriously injured physically, but that the person convicted was only sentenced to four months' imprisonment; and will he, in view of the increasing number of these assaults on little children, see that where there is a prosecuting solicitor for the police the magistrate is pressed to send the case for trial, in order that where conviction follows a heavier punishment may he inflicted?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSPower was given by the Children Act to deal with these cases summarily for the special purpose of avoiding the necessity for committal for trial in the interests of the children. The offences in this case were of a serious character. The magistrate would have been fully justified in passing the maximum sentence allowed by the Act, namely, six months' imprisonment in respect of each case.