Below also see: Sydney Arkinstall, 1925 – Indecent assault,
Sydney Arkinstall, 1928 – Indecent assault

 

The Daily Telegraph, Wed 11 May 1921 ¹

CRIMINAL.
———
(Before Judge Backhouse and a jury.)

PLEAS OF GUILTY.

    Sydney Arkinstall pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal assault on a boy, [buggery on Allen (or Loilel) Harvey, 12], and was remanded for sentence.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald, Wed 11 May 1921 ²

QUARTER SESSIONS.
(Before Judge Backhouse.)

    Mr Norman Rowland, Crown Prosecutor.

GROSS MISCONDUCT.

    Sydney Arkinstall, who pleaded guilty to gross misconduct at North Sydney on March 12, was remanded for sentence.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Daily Telegraph, Sat 14 May 1921 ³

CRIMINAL.
———

…

(Before Judge Backhouse.)

    Mr Norman de H Rowland prosecuted in No. 1 Court of the Sydney Quarter Sessions.
…
    The following sentences were imposed:—
…
    Sydney Arkinstall, indecent assault, three years’ penal servitude.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 14 May 1921 ⁴

QUARTER SESSIONS.
(Before Judge Backhouse.)

    Mr Norman Rowland, Crown Prosecutor.
…

SENTENCES.

    His Honor passed the following sentences:—
…
    Sydney Arkinstall, gross misconduct at North Sydney, three years’ penal servitude.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sydney Arkinstall, Gaol photo sheet ⁵

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Gaol Photo Sheet - Transcribed Details

No. 17896

Date when Portrait was taken: 11-5-1921

Name: Sydney Arkinstall
(aka Sydney Burns, Sydney Arthur Arkinstall)

Native place: Brisbane Year of birth: 22-7-1889 Arrived       Ship: in Colony }   Year: BS Trade or occupation previous to conviction  } Laborer Religion: C of E Education, degree of: R & W Height: 5' 9" Weight     On committal: 175 in lbs     } On discharge: Colour of hair: Brown Colour of eyes: Brown

Marks or special features: Scars on back of right hand, over left eye & on outside left calf

(No. of previous Portrait .. 10935, 11569, 12743, 14726, 15500, Bathurst 2128, 2529) CONVICTIONS
Where and When				Offence.	Sentence
Capertee PC Redfern PC Sydney Q.S Central PC Redfern PC           exd Central PC	26 20 10 25 21   4   2	1 8 5 1 2 3 6	1920 1920 1921 1924 1924 1924 1924	Stealing Suspected person Indecent assault on a male person  Vagrancy Breach of licence   Vagrancy	4 months HL. 3 months HL. 3 years P.S. 3 months H.L. Unexpired portion of 3 years PS imposed 10-5-1926   6 months H.L.
And 10 previous Convictions for which see Photo No. as above

 

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Sydney Arkinstall, 1925

The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 31 Jan 1925 ⁶

LAW NOTICES.
———
Monday, February 2.

…

QUARTER SESSIONS.

    No. 1 Court.—William Alexander Defries, larceny; Robert Shelton, false pretences; John Edward Brainston, William Charles Kerim, and Charles Benjamin Williams, breaking, entering, and stealing; Robert Johnstone and George Boyne, having house-breaking implements in possession.

    No. 2 Court.—Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, indecent assault; Lawrence James Medway, malicious injury to property; Frederick Wilson, false pretences; Michael Smith, stealing from a vessel in port; Thomas Henry Simeon, larceny.

    Note.—Witnesses other than those engaged in the abovementioned cases will not be required to attend the Court on Monday, 2nd February.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 2 Feb 1925 ⁷

LAW NOTICES.
———◦———
Monday, February 2.

…

QUARTER SESSIONS.

…
    No. 2 Court.—Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, indecent assault; Lawrence James Medway, malicious injury to property; Frederick Wilson, false pretences; Michael Smith, stealing from a vessel in port; Thomas Henry Simcoe, larceny.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Daily Telegraph, Tue 3 Feb 1925 ⁸

CRIMINAL.
———
(Before Judge Edwards.)
Crown Prosecutor: Mr LJ McKean.

…

(Before Acting-Judge Rowland.)

    Crown Prosecutor: Mr WT Coyle, KC.

CONVICTED.

    Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, undefended, was charged in No. 2 Court with having committed an indecent assault on a male person, [Lionel Harvey ], at Bankstown on November 10. Accused, against whom there was a long record, including two terms of three years’ penal servitude, was convicted, and remanded for sentence.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald, Tue 3 Feb 1925 ⁹

QUARTER SESSIONS.

No. 1 Court.
(Before Judge Edwards.)
Crown Prosecutor, Mr LJ McKean.

…

No. 2 Court.
(Before Acting Judge Rowland.)
Crown Prosecutor, Mr WT Coyle, KC.

ASSAULT.

    Sydney Arthur Arkinstall was convicted of having assaulted a male person at Bankstown on November 10, and was remanded for sentence.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Daily Telegraph, Sat 7 Feb 1925 ¹⁰

CRIMINAL.
———
(Before Judge Edwards.)
Crown Prosecutor: Mr LJ McKean.

…

(Before Acting-Judge Rowland.)

    Crown Prosecutor: Mr WT Coyle, KC.
…

SENTENCED.

    The following sentences were passed:—

    Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, a serious offence—three years’ penal servitude. His Honor said he would recommend that prisoner be kept under observation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 7 Feb 1925 ¹¹

QUARTER SESSIONS.

No. 1 Court.
(Before Judge Edwards.)

…

No. 2 Court.
(Before Acting Judge Rowland.)

    The following persons, who had pleaded guilty or been convicted during the week, were dealt with as stated:—
…
    Sydney Arthur Arkinstall (35), labourer, indecent assault on a little boy, three years’ penal servitude.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Truth, Sun 8 Feb 1925 ¹²

BOY LURED INTO BANKSTOWN BUSH
BY FILTHY-MINDED MORON
————
ARTHUR ARKINSTALL CONVICTS HIMSELF
————
QUAILS BEFORE THE ACCUSING EYE OF LAD'S MOTHER

THE conviction at the Darlinghurst Sessions on Monday of the infamous Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, alias Burns, alias Burchill, removes a source of horror and anxiety from the mind of every mother of a lad of tender years in Sydney.

ARKINSTALL is the degenerate who, with the elementary cunning of his kind, lured a 13-year-old boy away from school and home, took him to Bankstown and in the bush there indecently assaulted him.

IT was in accord with Arkinstall’s usual methods that the bait he held out to the unsuspecting youngster was to promise him a bicycle if he would accompany him to Bankstown, where it seems clear he had made preparations in advance to consummate his foul purpose.

    For the past year this moron has been hanging around parks and picture shows endeavouring to entice kiddies away with him by promising them toys and sweets.

    Though in 1921, for an assault similar to that at Bankstown, Arkinstall was sent to gaol for three years, twice since serving that sentence he has been convicted on charges arising out of his filthy-minded behavior in parks and picture shows.

    Beginning with a fine for fraud at Redfern in 1908, this irreclaimable waster’s sentence total 18 years 4 months, exclusive of his well-merited term for his horrible crime at Bankstown.

    This is his record in full:—
    1908, Redfern Police Court, fraudulent appropriation, fined 10s.
    1909, Sydney Quarter Sessions, larceny, 12 months’ hard labor.
    1910, Sydney Quarter Sessions, breaking and entering, two years’ hard labor.
    1910, Sydney Quarter Sessions, breaking and entering (concurrent), two years’ hard labor.
    1913, Sydney Quarter Sessions, breaking and entering, three years’ hard labor.
    1913, Sydney Quarter Sessions, breaking and entering (concurrent) two years’ hard labor.
    1915, Redfern Police Court, false pretences and stealing, nine months’.
    1916, Redfern Police Court, goods in custody, three months’ hard labor.
    1917, Sydney Quarter Sessions, stealing, three years’ hard labor.
    1920, Capertee Police Court, larceny, four months’.
    1920, Redfern Police Court, suspected person, three months’ hard labor.
    1921, Sydney Quarter Sessions, indecent assault, three years’
    1924, Central Police Court, vagrancy, three months’.
    1924, Central Police Court, vagrancy, six months’.

SIMPLE STORY

    The unfortunate victim of this criminal pervert, a pale, delicate-featured boy with abundant fair hair parted in the centre of his head, told a simple, straightforward story that strongly impressed the court.

    He had been accosted by the accused, he said, outside the Crown-street Public School on November 10.

    For a long time he had yearned for a bike, and when Arkinstall, who had cunningly divined the boy’s passion for a machine, promised to take him to a place where he could get one, the unsuspecting lad was easily persuaded to follow him.

    Arkinstall had taken him to Bankstown, in his haste to catch the train buying two adult second-class tickets instead of one adult’s and one child’s.

    “And what then, my boy?” asked Acting-Judge Rowland.

    “We were going to go rabbiting first, but he’—indicating the grimy-looking person in the dock—“said it was too wet. We walked around until it was dark, and then he took me into the bush to a hut.

    “I said my mother would be anxious, but he said he had not got enough money to take me home.

    “He said that that would be all right, and wrapped his coat round me and told me that we would have to stay in the hut for the night.”

    The boy then described how Arkinstall subsequently committed the offence with which he was charged.

CONDEMNS HIMSELF

    “Did you say anything?” asked the Crown Prosecutor (Mr WT Coyle, KC).

    “I told him to stop it,” answered the boy, “and he did.”

    Arkinstall, who was not represented by counsel, then conducted on his own behalf an extraordinary cross-examination of the witness that, if conducted by the Crown Prosecutor himself, could hardly have clinched the case against him more surely.

    He began with a number of rambling, irrelevant questions leading up to the offence itself, and the first of them that had any direct bearing on the case was the query: “Did I say I hadn’t enough money to get you home and that we’d have to spend the night in the bush?”

    “Yes,” answered the boy, his quiet treble penetrating clearly the farthest recesses of the court.

    I said I’d take you home as soon as I could?—Yes.

    Taking you home, I says to you, go straight home, I says; don’t say anything about me, and I’ll go away and give you a lot of money. Don’t say anything to put me away to the police, I says, and I’ll give you £5—I says that, didn’t I?—Yes.

    I says, didn’t I: “You go straight home,” I says, and you says: “I’ll have to tell my mother the truth?”—Yes.

    Couldn’t someone else have been there when you was interfered with?—No I don’t think so.

    When you says: “Stop doing that, I says: “All right”?—Yes.

    When this quite remarkable catechism, conducted by a man who had pleaded not guilty, was over, the boy’s mother, dressed in unrelieved black, made her way weakly to the witness box.

    The terrible plight into which her small son’s innocence had led him had unnerved her. She broke down completely during her short but poignant story of the boy’s return home, the visit to the doctor and the calling in of the police.

    Arkinstall stood up to question her, but quailed before her accusing eye.

    Swine such as he can plumb recklessly the deeps of iniquity, but they cannot face the righteous judgment that is written in the eyes of a mother whose child they have wronged.

ACCUSED’S ADMISSIONS

    Plain-clothes Constable Brown told how on November 15 last he told Arkinstall that he fitted the description of the man who was wanted for the Bankstown crime.

    “I asked him the following questions,” said the police officer:

    Did you take the boy to Bankstown to get him a bike? He answered “Yes.”

    Did you indecently assault him? Arkinstall admitted it.

    How were you going to get the bike?? He said he was “going to pinch” one.

    Thus was the case against the degenerate present.

    Acting-Judge Rowland then gave the man the usual choice of the means at hand to defend himself, and Arkinstall elected to make a statement from the dock.

    “Your Honor, gentlemen of the jury, I want to say—–“ he began, and got no further.

    He scanned alternately the ceiling and the fly that peered meditatively into the deeps of the Court’s water bottle. He coughed and cleared his throat, and fumbled the stout iron bars that caged him in the dock.

VAGUE RAMBLINGS

    And the court waited. It waited ten minutes. It waited eleven minutes. A distant clock struck noon.

    “Well?” queried the judge patiently.

    “I can’t remember anything,” muttered the prisoner. “I didn’t take the boy away for anything. When he said: “Stop doing that,” I said: “All right.”

    “Next morning I told him he’d better go home, and I tried to get away. I couldn’t get on a boat.

    “I tried to get work at Long Bay, but I couldn’t.”

    He rambled on vaguely, and most of what he said had nought to do with the case. What he did say that was relevant would have convicted him in the most tolerant court in the world:

    “I give the boy good advice. I says: ‘Go home,’ I says, ‘I’ll send you five pound, if I get away,’ I says, ‘Don’t talk to nobody, or the police will get me,’ I says. I gave him goog advice.”

    The jury’s speaking part in this drama of the rottenness of a human soul was small.

    Its cue was plain, and its pronouncement likewise.

    “Guilty,” it said.

    On Friday Acting-Judge Rowland sentenced Arkinstall to three years’ hard labor.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, Gaol photo sheet ¹³

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Gaol Photo Sheet - Transcribed Details

No. 20641

Date when Portrait was taken: 3-2-1925

Name: Sydney Arthur Arkinstall
(aka Sydney Arkinstall, Sydney Burns)

Native place: Brisbane Year of birth: 22-7-1889 Arrived       Ship: in Colony }   Year: BS Trade or occupation previous to conviction  } Laborer Religion: C of E Education, degree of: R & W Height: 5' 7⅞" Weight     On committal: 176 in lbs     } On discharge: Colour of hair: Brown Colour of eyes: Brown

Marks or special features: Scars on back of right hand, over left eye & on outside left calf.

(No. of previous Portraits .. 10935, 11569, 12743, 14726, 15500, 17896, 2128 Bathurst) CONVICTIONS
Where and When				Offence.	Sentence
Central PC Redfern PC         exd Central PC Sydney Q.S Penrith PC	25 29   4   2   2   7 23	1   2   3   6   2 11   6	1924 1924 1924 1924 1925 1927 1927	Vagrancy Breach of License Vagrancy Indecently assault a male person Stealing License revoked	3 months HL Unexpired portion of 3 years PS imposed 10-5-1921 6 months HL. 3 years PS to date from 17-11-1924 6 months H.L. Balance of 3 years PS to date from 17-11-1924
And 12 previous convictions for which see Photo Nos. as above

 

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Sydney Arkinstall, 1928

The Daily Telegraph, Fri 13 Jul 1928 ¹⁴

TO-DAY’S LAW LIST
———

…

SYDNEY QUARTER SESSIONS

…
    Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, indecent assault on a male person (to plead guilty).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Daily Telegraph, Sat 14 Jul 1928 ¹⁵

THE MAN IN THE STREET

…

TREATMENT OF PERVERTS

    “Dad” (Kurrajong) writes:—

    Re penalties suggested for offenders in sex assault cases. I will tell you what would go a long way to stop them. Brand the individual with, say, a triangle in a circle on the cheek or just over the nose, low on the forehead. The “pervert” would soon solve his problem, or others for him. It may seem a rough method, but then it is rougher on parents who have tried their best to keep their daughters in health and purity.

MAGISTRATE'S LENIENCY

    “Perplexed” explains why:—

    We read this morning of a magistrate in North Sydney Police Court merely fining a man £5 who admitted he was luring a child—a boy—away for criminal intentions, and again this man attempted to lure the little boy’s little sister away by giving the boy money. What might have happened had this scoundrel’s plans been carried out is too revolting to imagine.

    If the full powers of the law were adhered to for criminal offences, and not modified by lenient judges and magistrates, there would be no need to strengthen the police force.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Mercury, Sat 14 Jul 1928 ¹⁶

SYDNEY OUTRAGES

…

Sydney, July 13.

…

CRIMINAL RECORD.

    At the Darlinghurst Sessions, Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, 36, labourer, was charged with having criminally assaulted a boy at Sydney on June 25. Accused pleaded guilty, and as there was a long criminal record against him, he was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude and declared an habitual criminal.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 14 Jul 1928 ¹⁷

QUARTER SESSIONS.
(Before Judge Curlewis.)

    Crown Prosecutor, Mr VH Treatt.
…

INDECENT ASSAULT.

    Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, 36, labourer, was charged with having indecently assaulted a boy at Sydney on June 25.

    The accused pleaded guilty, and, as there was a long criminal record against him, he was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude, and declared an habitual criminal.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sydney Arthur Arkinstall, Gaol photo sheet ¹⁸

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Gaol Photo Sheet - Transcribed Details

No. 23180

Date when Portrait was taken: 14-7-1928

Name: Sydney Arthur Arkinstall
(aka Sydney Arkinstall)

Native place: Brisbane Year of birth: 22-7-1889 Arrived       Ship: in Colony }   Year: BS Trade or occupation previous to conviction  } Labourer Religion: C of E Education, degree of: R & W Height: 5' 9" Weight     On committal: 172 in lbs     } On discharge: Colour of hair: Brown Colour of eyes: Brown

Marks or special features: Scars on back of right hand, over left eye, and on outside of left calf.

(No. of previous Portraits .. 2128 Bathurst, 10935, 11569, 12743, 14726, 15500, 17896, 20641) CONVICTIONS
Where and When				Offence.	Sentence
Penrith PC Sydney Q.S Court of Criminal Appeal	7 23 13 10	11   6   7   8	1927 1927 1928 1928	Stealing License revoked by His Excellency the Governor Indecent assault on a male person Application for leave to appeal dismissed	6 months H.L.  To serve balance of 3 years P.S. dating from 17-11-1924 imposed 2-2-1925 5 years P.S. and declared Habitual Criminal. Appealed 16-7-1928
And 16 previous convictions for which see Photo Nos. as above

 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 11 Aug 1928 ¹⁹

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL.
(Before Sir Philip Street, CJ, Mr Justice Ferguson, and Mr Justice James.)
Mr Weigall, KC, for the Crown.

…

Rex v Arkinstall

    Sydney Arthur Arkinstall was sentenced by Judge Curlewis at Sydney Quarter Sessions to five years’ penal servitude on a charge of indecent assault, and in addition declared a habitual criminal. He applied for leave to appeal against the severity of the sentence, or alternatively that he be sent to a mental establishment. The Court expressed the opinion that, in view of the accused’s previous record, his sentence was not excessive, and pointed out that the application for medical treatment should be made to the prison and Crown law authorities.

 

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¹     The Daily Telegraph, Wed 11 May 1921, p. 7.

²     The Sydney Morning Herald, Wed 11 May 1921, p. 8.

³     The Daily Telegraph, Sat 14 May 1921, p. 14.

⁴     The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 14 May 1921, p. 9.

⁵     SRNSW: NRS2467, [3/6105], State Penitentiary photographic description book, 9 Oct 1920-14 May 1921, No. 17896, p. 450. Emphasis added.

⁶     The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 31 Jan 1925, p. 14. Emphasis added.

⁷     The Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 2 Feb 1925, p. 5. Emphasis added.

⁸     The Daily Telegraph, Tue 3 Feb 1925, p. 4.

⁹     The Sydney Morning Herald, Tue 3 Feb 1925, p. 5.

¹⁰   The Daily Telegraph, Sat 7 Feb 1925, p. 13.

¹¹   The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 7 Feb 1925, p. 12.

¹²   Truth, (Syd, NSW), Sun 8 Feb 1925, p. 9. Emphasis in original and added.

¹³   SRNSW: NRS2467, [3/6113], State Penitentiary photographic description book, 11 Oct 1924-26 Mar 1925, No. 20641, p. 177. Emphasis added.

¹⁴   The Daily Telegraph, Fri 13 Jul 1928, p. 7.

¹⁵   The Daily Telegraph, Sat 14 Jul 1928, p. 6.

¹⁶   The Mercury, Sat 14 Jul 1928, p. 11.

¹⁷   The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 14 Jul 1928, p. 12.

¹⁸   SRNSW: NRS2467, [3/6122], State Penitentiary photographic description book, 29 Jun 1928-7 Nov 1928, No. 23180, p. 42.

¹⁹   The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 11 Aug 1928, p. 12.

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