"A WICKED THING."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 26, 1 February 1928, Page 5

"A WICKED THING."

the woman suffers. HUSBAND FINED FOR ASSAULTING WIFE. At midnight, yesterday Constable Hargreaves, of St. Helier's Bay, was urgently summoned by Mrs.* Cecilev Jones, who had complained that her i husband had assaulted her. As a result of the constable's visit to the home of the Jones. Valentine Christopher Jones (23) appeared before Mr. F. K. Hunt, SJI., at the Police Court this morning charged with assaulting his wife. In entering a plea of not guilty on his client's behalf, Mr. Hall Skelton said that accused admitted striking his wife. However, it was quite accidental. Mrs. Jones, who held a baby in her arms as she sat and gave her evidence, concealed a badly blackened left eye beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Her husband was a labourer and they had two children. X<ast night accused came home and lay on the sofa. Witness was sitting in a chair. They had an argument, and her husband became very heated over the subject. He sprang up from the sofa. After that she could not remember what happened until she was helped on to her feet and found that she had sustained a black eye and a large lump on the back of her head. Mr. Skelton: Accused says that you thought that he was going to hit you and you fell over the chair, his elbow poing in your eye. You were having a domestic quarrel—l don't want to state what it was over." Mrs. Jones did not answer. Senior Sergeant Cuminings (to Mrs. Jones): Whom do you suggest was the cause of this domestic trouble? There's another woman in the case, is there not? Again the witness did not answer. "That not the trouble," said counsel. '" r hat is exactly the trouble," replied Mr. Cummings. Constable Hargreaves said that in a statement which accused made after his arrest, Jones admitted that his wife's black eye was caused by liis hand coming into contact with it. He did not mean to cause her any injury. The lump on the head was the result of her bumping herself against the wall. In evidence, Jones stated that there was no other woman in the case. 'T merely caught hold of her to make her listen to what I had to say. She toppled, over backwards and my elbow went in her eye. I did not mean to hit her." "I have a good mind to send you to gaol for fourteen days, as I sent the last man there who knocked his wife about," Mr. Hunt told Jones in convicting him of the assault. "However, this seems to be the first happening of the kind. You are fined £o or fourteen days in gaol. Now, remember, if you touch this woman again you will go to Mount Eden." "I won't do that," said Janes. "No, you won't do it for six months at least," added Mr. Hunt. "The wicked thing is that the wife has to suffer for it."