JUDGMENT

Spenser-Wilkinson J:

The facts and arguments sufficiently appear from the judgment.

In this case the Deputy Public Prosecutor appealed against the Order of the learned Magistrate binding over the accused in the sum of $100 to be of good behaviour for three months with one surety, upon a charge under s. 354 of the Penal Code.

The facts alleged were that the accused, who lived in the next room to the complainant, an unmarried woman, climbed over the partition between their rooms during the night and having first embraced the complainant threatened to stab her with a knife when she started shouting. The complainant thereupon continued to shout with the result that the accused then scaled the partition wall and went back into his room. At the conclusion of the case the learned Magistrate, having found that the charge was proved, without proceeding to record a conviction, discharged the offender under the bond just mentioned under the provisions of s. 173A of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The contention of the Deputy Public Prosecutor was that, where a person is found guilty of an offence under this section, it is necessary, for the protection of women and girls, that a sever