Corpun file 25205 at www.corpun.com

Daily Mirror, London, 30 September 1959, p.21

Whip this boy sailor -- Court order

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A TEENAGE sailor from a British warship was yesterday sentenced by a South African court to a whipping -- but the sentence was suspended for two years.

The sailor is a member of the crew of the frigate Leopard, which has been calling at African ports.

He was brought before a magistrates' court at Capetown and accused of contravening South Africa's Immorality Act with a coloured woman last Sunday.

Under the Immorality Act intimacy between whites and non-whites is forbidden in South Africa.

During the hearing evidence was given that before arriving at Capetown on September 21, the Leopard called at ports on the West Coast of Africa and in South America.

In these places, it was pointed out, there were no restrictions similar to those imposed by South Africa's Immorality Act.

Polio Case

The young sailor was found guilty and sentenced to a whipping.

However, the sentence was suspended for two years because of further evidence put before the court.

This was that a case of poliomyelitis had developed in the Leopard after she called at Simonstown, the naval base near Capetown.

The court was told that doctors had advised that members of the ship's company should not be exposed to any injury or strain which might make them more liable to catch polio.

The young sailor had been in contact with the polio victim, it was added, and a whipping could make him more susceptible to the disease.

NOTE: Because of his age, the sailor comes within the terms of South Africa's laws restricting the publication of the names of young people concerned in court cases.