CASE DISMISSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 167, 18 July 1938, Page 8

CASE DISMISSED.

SECRETARY CHARGED.

YOUNG WOMAN'S STORY.

COMMENT BY MAGISTRATE.

Holding that the evidence mo ±

justify tlio information- ajrainst him. Mr. C. R. Or Walker. S.M.. in the Police Court thfe nfii-rii' in dit-missed two charge* upon which Arthur Grosvenor Mabce, aged 03, secretary of the Auckland Trotting Club, appeared.

Accused, for whom Mr. (.. P. Finlav appeared, was charged with assaulting Eileen Mona Hacke on July 9, fnrtlier. with behaving in iin manner in Queen Street. He pleaded not guilty to both counts. "Started to Sing." Sub-Inspector Flanagan prosecuted oiid called as the fiivt witness Eileen Mona Hacke, a sinple woman, who seid she lived at KrowiiVi Bay. She said that she standing in Queen Street opposite the ''Herald" Office about 7J5 p.m. on July !>. when Ma bee walked up beside her and tried to attract her attention, which *he ignored.

''I walke<l acrn* and entered th* •Herald' Office, and he followed nie an( j started to sing. 'Of All the Queene I Kver Met I Choose You.'"' said the witness. "He was also talking under hie breath. He grabbed me roiighlv hv the shoulder and turned me round." 1 then asked a jrentleman nearby in the lobby to take him away. I called a policeman and made a complaint to the constable.* Sub-Inspector. Flaiw<ran: Wae lie under the influence of liquor?—l think lie was because I was so close to him I could smell his breath.

In aiKH-er to further questions witness saiil another man was onlv three' feet away from her when Mabee spoke to her in the lobby. She eeid to Mabee, "Why cant men of XewjZealand mind their own business?" and! "Whv cant I be left alone?" Did Nothing Improper. Charles Newlove, a storeman, sail he was standing in the lobby df tta "Herald" office and saw Miss Hacke speaking to the accused, but he could not hear what was being said. Mist Hacke asked witness to take accused away. Witness did not see Mabee touch the woman. Mabee entered the "Herald" office and returned a few minute? !#tcr. By that time a constable had arrived.

Cross-examined by Mr. Finlay, witnese said Mabee did nothing improper. He did not hear Mabee sing and was so close to him that he would have heard if he did sing. "The young woman was doing the talking and as far as I could see Mr. Mal>ee was behaving quite properly," added witness.

The evidence of Constable Madden was that he was on duty near the

"Herald" office -when Miss Hacke made a complaint to him that she had been followed by accused and that when she stopped he walked behind her. Mabee denial this and explained that when he was walking into the lobby, Miss Hacke stepped back suddenly and he collided with her. Mabee refused to go to the police station with witness for the purpose of making a statement and so he was arrested. "A Little Grotesque." "There is something extraordinary and inconsistent in the story thU young woman has built up," eaid Mr. Fin Jay. "Your Worship has heard, with melodramatic force, how she was caught by the shoulder and swung round. In her original com plaint to the police constable she never said one word aboiit such a thing happening, as one would have expected if it did occur. The absence of such a complaint i<? significant. She first told the constable that my client followed her. Your Worship will appreciate the absurdity of the suggestion that a man. whatever his characteristic-* might be, would pester her when another man was only three feet away, and in a well-lisrhted place comrlctely open to and only a few feet from Queen Street. It is all a little grotesque, and I almost venture to «igeost the young woman's story is entirely unreal."

Mr. Finlay said Mr. Mabee had been working on Saturdjy afternoon and was on his way to the "Herald" office on business. As he -walked through the lobby the young woman, who was looking at the pictures, stepped back and. collided with him. Mabee apologised, but in plain terms she upbraided him. He f=nid he was sorry and went into the office. Mnbee would categorically deny that be touched her. that he followed her or sang* to her. Charges Dismissed. Accused then gave evidence and paid tliat when be accidentally bumped into Miss Hacke as he was parking throngli the lobby he said. "I am sorry." She then said, "If that's the way New Zealand men tr<»at Australian "ladies when they come over here, it would he better if they did not come," said Ma bee. "I replied, 'Perhaps it would.' But ehe continued to protect, and. although I apologised, she kept it up and when she told me she would give me in charge, I replied. 'Don't be silly.' I then walked into the 'Herald' oflice."

Maboe denied that he followed or stopped Miss I 1 ke on the opposite eide of the street. Xeithcr did lie touch her nor sing to her.

Mr. Orr Walker: I think that if all the young lady says happened, then the jiolirp wit lies"!. XewJove. would have something of it. He doe* not confirm her statement at all. Xatnrally, it throws some doubt upon what she says The whole thinjr miplit easily have been niisnnderstood and .-he may have ined other thinjrs. It i* all a question of intent on the part of the accu-ed. Aftei hearing all the evidence I don't th'mV there \va* any int.-nt on his ;-art, and I therefore the charges agains* him.