ON THREE COUNTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 14 February 1939, Page 8

ON THREE COUNTS.

ACCUSED FOUND GUILTY. ASSAULT AT REMUERA. After a retirement of 35 minutes the jury returned a verdict of guilty on three counts against George Cecil Horry, a tailor, aged 31, who appeared before Mr. Justice Callan yesterday on five charges involving assault.

The counts on which he was found guilty were (1) demanding money with menaces from Mrs. Eva Kathleen Hendry; (2) assault with intent to commit a crime; and (3) assault so as to cause actual bodily harm. The offences took place on December 20 in Remuera. Mr. V. R. Meredith prosecuted, while Mr. Sullivan represented accused. Making his final direction to the jury, Mr. Sullivan said that the whole thing resolved itself into a matter of identity. There was no evidence to support Mrs. Hendry in her contention that the accused was in Remuera that morning. Mr. Sullivan admitted that his client had a bad criminal record, and said the Crown prosecutor had spent some time in dealing with Horry's past. He invited the jury to disregard that. It was the facts of the present case that counted. There was also some doubt about the time round which the morning's incidents and accused's movements centred.

Everything that Mrs: Hendry saw in a terrible few minutes on the morning when she was assaulted would be burned into her memory so that she Would never forget, said Mr. Meredith. She had given a description of the man who had assaulted her, and the description fitted Horry. He submitted that the man's identity had been established beyond reasonable doubt.

Accused was remanded for sentence until to-morrow.