SUPREME COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 133, 7 June 1910, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

ALLSGBD BO3BERT WITH, VIOLENCE. At the criminal sessions of the Auckland Supreme Court yesterday afternoon the hearing of the charge of robbery with violence, preferred against the three youths, James Whisker, John Oscar Scott, and Percy Mercer, was continued. The defence suggested an entirely different story to that adleged by the Chinaman, Ah You, who was assaulted. It was stated that Mercer came to grips with the celestial over the question of payment for cartridges given him after he bought a pea-rifle for 7/tf. Ah You made a hit at Mercer with the pea-rifle he had in his hand, and Mercer responded with a weapon he was carrying, and the two coming in contact one was smashed into splinters. A tussle ensued and Mercer got possession of a valuable paper belonging to the Chinaman, who offered the contents of his purse for the return of the paper. Thus Mercer got the money. Mr. Lundon urged that had Ah You been hit on the back of the head with sufficient violence to smash the butt of the gun, as alleged, the injury would have been more severe than shown by the medical evidence.

A number of witnesses were called who attested to the good character of the three youths. - Medical evidence showed that the injury to the Chinaman's head when examined on the following day, was trh T ia3.

The version of the incident given in evidence by the accused Scott indicated that Whisker and -witness took no part in the assault, Mercer playing a lone hand in the business. Witness received 10/ from Mercer, and this, he understood, ■was payment for the broken gun. Further evidence was heard this morning, and his Honor, in summing up, directed that it was the duty of the jury •to find whether all or any one of the three accused were guilty of assault and robbery, and whether they had knowingly participated in the proceeds of a robbery alleged to have been committed by one of the youths. The jury returned a verdict of .not guilty in the case of Whisker and Scott, and in finding Mercer guilty added a recommendation for lenient treatment on account of his youth. Sentence was deferred. MWEICOME VISITORS. George Johnstone, a sturdily-built young man, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault, causing actual bodily harm, alleged to have been committed on "Joseph Poball and Julius Nehrang at Auckland on April 21. The circumstances of the case, as alleged by the prosecution, were that Poball (a seaman) and Nehrang (ship's fireman), visited a house in Grey-street on the night in question to secure lodgings. In response to a knock the accused put his head out of an upstairs window, and was told the object of the visit. The next thing that happened was the opening of the door, and accused rushed "but,' and administered blows on the visitors with a soldering iron. Poball got a hit on the right jaw wifti tlie weapon, ■which felled him to the ground, and Nehi rang came off even worse.

(Proceeding.)