Robert David Bennett
Robert David Bennett was an Australian habitual criminal and sex offender. He was convicted of the rape of a young girl in Western Australia in 1911 and, despite receiving a life sentence for the crime, he was released in June 1914 under controversial circumstances. Bennett and another criminal named Angus Murray committed a series of offences in New South Wales and Victoria, culminating in an armed bank robbery in suburban Melbourne in 1917, for which each were sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Soon after his release from prison Bennett was again convicted of raping a young girl, a capital offence for which he received a death sentence. He was executed at Pentridge Prison in September 1932. Bennett was the first of eleven people to be hanged at Pentridge Prison after the closure of Melbourne Gaol in 1924
Bennett was the last person to be executed in Australia for rape or for any crime other than murder.
Biography
Early life
Robert David Bennett was born on 12 September 1875 at Hutchesontown in inner-city Glasgow, Scotland, the eldest child of David Bennett and Jane. His father was a carpenter by profession.Bennett and his family emigrated to Australia aboard the Energia, arriving at Sydney on 4 June 1886.
Move to Midland Junction
Robert Bennett and Elizabeth Steele were married in 1897 at Fremantle, Western Australia. The couple had a daughter, Margaret, born in 1898 at Fremantle.By 1905 Bennett and his family were living in the Midland Junction district near Perth, where Bennett worked as a painter. He was the senior trainer of the Midland Junction Football Club in 1906 and 1907. Bennett was also "well known in boxing circles" and managed local boxing matches at Midland Junction.
Outrages at Midland
When Bennett was convicted of the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in March 1911, and following his controversial release from prison in June 1914, several instances of sexual assaults that preceded his 1911 conviction were reported in the press. It was stated that "there was strong presumption that he was guilty of tampering with little children on more than two or three other occasions" in the Midland Junction district. After Bennett's committal hearing the Midland Junction newspaper, The Swan Express, reported that "the present offence, the one committed three months ago, and a similar crime perpetrated about three years ago, all occurred within 100 yards of the Town Hall". After a series of cases of interference with little children had occurred at Midland "the name of Bennett was so freely coupled with the outrages that to a large extent he was ostracised by his shop mates".- One case involving a young girl was considered to have been "far worse" than the case for which he was convicted in 1911. In June 1910, as reported in The Swan Express, "a little girl nine years of age was attacked by a male fiend and abominably maltreated". The girl and her brother were passing through the grounds attached to the Church of the Ascension, "when a man approached and sent the boy away for some lollies". During his absence "the girl was savagely attacked by the miscreant". The police were unable to collect sufficient evidence to justify an arrest, but it was reported that it was "the settled conviction of the police that the inhuman perpetrator of the deed is a local resident". Statements in connection with the case were submitted to the authorities, but as the only witness against the perpetrator was child herself, the Crown Prosecutor decided it "would be useless to arrest Bennett, as, there being no corroboration, the jury could not possibly convict."
- Subsequent to above case, Bennett was caught trying to entice a child "away into a secluded spot" by the child's father. The father "gave Bennett a sound thrashing", and ordered him to leave Midland Junction. Bennett left for a brief period, but returned soon afterwards "to commit the revolting offence for which he was arrested."
Sexual assault of a minor
Later that evening a doctor examined the young girl and "found signs of interference". The doctor claimed the child was "mentally weak, and it was doubtful if she was in a mental state to distinguish right from wrong". Despite the medical assessment the young girl later gave evidence at Bennett's trial. A newspaper report of the trial noted that "the child is undoubtably afflicted mentally, but nevertheless she gave her evidence very well", adding that "even those used to daily attending courts of law, could hardly repress a shudder as the girl told her story in her simple way".
Bennett was tried on 14 and 15 March 1911 at the Criminal Sessions, charged with having had unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 13 years. After the witnesses for the prosecution gave their evidence, Bennett took the stand. He stated he was a painter and in about 1898 he had a serious accident when a block of wood fell on his head. Subsequently, he underwent seven separate operations "for various bodily troubles". On the day of the offense he claimed to have "taken a quantity of drink" and could not remember what he had done. A doctor giving evidence for the defence stated he had examined the accused and concluded Bennett was insane "due to a thickening of the skull, contributing causes being the large number of operations performed upon him". The judge, in summing up, gave special instructions to the jury on how to regard the evidence regarding the defence of insanity. After retiring for twenty minutes the jury returned a verdict of guilty "on the full count". Bennett was remanded until later in the week for sentencing.
Bennett was sentenced on March 17. In passing sentence the judge, Justice Robert McMillan, commented that the prisoner was "guilty of a horrible offence" and was "not a person who ought to be at large". He passed "the maximum punishment possible", that of imprisonment for life with hard labour. Justice McMillan then added that he was required by law to pass a further punishment under a recent Act of Parliament called the Criminal Code Amendment Act. Bennett had committed an offence under section 185 of the Criminal Code for which the Act required the judge to pass an additional sentence of whipping. Justice McMillan described this as "a repulsive obligation" as he was sure a flogging would tend to increase Bennett's "mental infirmity". However, the law allowed the judge to use his discretion. McMillan had looked through the records for the past 10 years and nine strokes of the cat-o'-nine-tails had been the minimum sentence he could find, so the judge directed that in this case the number of strokes should be limited to nine. Bennett listened to the sentencing in silence, "and at the close of his Honour's address had to be assisted out of the dock".
In 1913 Elizabeth and Robert Bennett were divorced. It was disclosed in a later newspaper report that "Bennett's wife sued him for divorce on the ground of his adultery" with the young girl he had sexually assaulted in January 1911, "and relied on practically the same evidence submitted at the criminal trial".
While he was imprisoned in Fremantle Gaol, Bennett met another prisoner named Henry James Donnelly, with whom he was to maintain a close relationship in the years ahead. Donnelly had been convicted in Perth in April 1909 on a burglary charge, receiving a sentence of seven years' hard labour. Donnelly was discharged from prison in February 1914. Within four months Bennett was also released from prison.
Controversial release
Despite his life sentence Bennett served just under three years and three months of imprisonment. He was released from prison in June 1914 under the authorisation of Thomas Walker, the Attorney-General of Western Australia in the Scadden Labor government. In justifying his decision Walker claimed to have received petitions "from various solicitors, who advanced medical reasons for Bennett's release", but what had "weighed with him most" was a petition sent by 'Major' Alfred Head, the Men's Social Secretary of the Salvation Army in Western Australia, on 27 April 1914. Head had submitted a proposal suggested to him by 'Colonel' Hoskins, head of the social work branch of the Salvation Army, that upon his release Bennett could be sent to Melbourne where Hoskins "would receive him and find him employment where he would be right away from temptation". In a statement made on the gallows prior to his execution in 1932, Bennett attributed his release in 1914 to representations made about his case by a "well-known Perth barrister" named Arthur Haynes.When Bennett was released on 9 June 1914 he was met at Fremantle Gaol by Major Head, who put him "on a boat bound for Melbourne, where Colonel Hoskins had promised to meet him on arrival". The newspaper report in Perth's Sunday Times, which disclosed the details of Bennett's release, was scornful of the actions of the Attorney-General. Referring to Walker as "tender-hearted Tommy", the report suggested he had been "led by the nose by the Salvation Army, and the Army will do itself no good by interfering with justice in this manner". The writer also expressed concerns about "saddling Victoria with a sexual maniac of such dangerous tendencies as Robert Bennett" and cast doubt on the capacity of the Salvation Army to keep Bennett under constant surveillance. The report concluded: "We do not allow lunatics from the Eastern States to be landed here, but ship them back, and under those circumstances we cannot expect our Eastern sisters to be more lamblike and admit our moral refuse in the shape of a dangerous sexual maniac like the ex-painter of Midland Junction". When interviewed in Melbourne after his release, Bennett expressed himself as being "very favorably impressed" with the Salvation Army "and the work it was doing for him". He added, "I am anxious to become a good citizen, and am thankful for the chance which has been given to me".
When a representative of Midland Junction's local newspaper, The Swan Express, phoned Major Head on July 15, in an effort "to obtain some insight into the reasons which had been advanced by the Salvation Army authorities to secure the release of the notorious Robert Bennett", the response from the Major was less than co-operative, with Head's manner described as "belligerent". Nevertheless, the full transcript of the conversation was published in the local paper. On Monday, 27 July 1914, an "indignation meeting" regarding the premature release of Bennett from gaol was held in the Midland Junction Town Hall. The meeting was described as being "largely attended" and strikingly unanimous". A resolution was passed at the meeting protesting against the action of the Attorney-General in releasing Bennett from prison, despite being imprisoned for life "by a Supreme Court Judge for a crime which His Honor characterised as the most horrible and disgusting which had ever come before him".
The Opposition Liberal Party attempted to make political capital out of the controversy surrounding Bennett's release from custody. The Leader of the Opposition, Frank Wilson, moved a motion on July 29 in an attempt to censure Walker. The motion read: "That in the opinion of this House the advice tendered by the Attorney-General to his Excellency the Governor, which resulted in the liberation of Robert Bennett, was not in the best interests of the administration of justice, and is calculated to weaken the protection afforded to women and children under our laws; and, further, that the Attorney-General is deserving of censure for having tendered such advice". After a lengthy debate the motion was defeated.