INDECENCY CHARGE DENIED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 257, 30 October 1929, Page 10

INDECENCY CHARGE DENIED.

A charge of indecent assault on a bov aged fourteen years was preferred against John Robert McMullan, a middleaged man, in the Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Smith this morning. Mr. Bay represented accused.

For the prosecution, Mr. V. N. Hubble stated that the boy met accused at Darnell, and the later offered hint a job in a grocery shop at 25/ a week. The pair saw the boy's parents, and they consented to him taking the position and staying with him. Accused took the. lad to a bach in St. Paul Street, and it was there that the offence was alleged to have taken place. The boy used a pretext to escape from the bach, and informed a constable what had occurred, lit a statement to the police, McMullan declared tha t, the boy s statements were "absolute lies." He could assign no reason for the allegations, and stated that the boy left the bach of his own accord. Accused had conducted a fish and chip business at College llill, but sold out a few days piioi to August 28, when the offence was supposed to have been committed. Accused, giving evidence, denied the accuracy of a statement made at the detective office. "I didn't sign it, anvwav," he said. Answering Mr. Ray. McMullan said his reason for refusing to sign was that he did not know what was in it. He was very upset at the time. r J he case is proceeding.