HOTEL ASSAULT

TWO MEN IMPRISONED

■■-~. * ' On a charge of assaulting William Archibald Fuller, manager of the Royal Hotel, Lambton Quay, a few minutes after closing time on Saturday, Joseph Cootes, aged 26, a New Zealand representative League: football.. player who recently returned from England, was sentenced to H, days' imprisonment by Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Edward George Thompson, aged 23, pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting Mrl Fuller and Stephen John Newland, a resident of the hotel, and was sentenced to 14 days' for each offence, the sentences to run concurrently. Evidence was given by the hotel manager and by-Mr. Newland that a few minutes after 6 p.m. Thompson attempted to go upstairs in the hotel and was prevented from doing so by Mr. Fuller, who grappled with the defendant. Cootes then intervened, striking Mr. x Fuller■ on the shoulder. During the melee Mr. Fuller suffered cuts to his upper and lower lips and had a tooth loosened. Mr. Fuller said that he had been unable to sleep on Saturday night and had been in bed all day yesterday as a result of the assault. Mr. Newland, who went to the aid of Mr. Fuller, said that he had been kicked in the abdomen and on the knee by Thompson. He described the assault as "one of the most cowardly things I have ever seen." Giving evidence, Cootes, who pleaded not guilty, said that he had been leaving the hotel when he saw Thompson at grips with Mr. Fuller, and had intervened to prevent Thompson going upstairs. He denied striking the hotel manager. \ James Corcoran, labourer, who was with Cootes, asserted that the latter had not struck anyone. Mr. T. G. Taylor, who appeared for the defendants, made an unsuccessful application for the suppression of Cootes's name on the grounds that he was a prominent New Zealand footballer and that his wife was at present seriously ill. In passing sentence, the Magistrate observed that there had been far too many assault cases before the Court recently. He would not allow men to go into hotels and make nuisances of' themselves.