FOR TRIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 99, 29 April 1939, Page 12

FOR TRIAL.

ASSAULT CHARGE. WOMAN'S ALLEGATION. BLOWS IN THE DARK. TWO MEN PLEAD NOT GUII.TV. (Hy Trletrripli. Own t'nrrPHpondpnt. j N V f' f KR, I'lU day. 'I'" "liii'v "f how after mf ti rn i " ll< ' nijj-lit ai id liiwling flip I'litl !"!t v -11 j• j. 1 rut off «}io wa« : ■ 1 — -.' "It I |i\' ,i run ii wln surprised her " '"''l i'i 1 11•" Vi|iii'r Police Court hv Mi-* K.i lli Iceii M\ im Rent on. 1 iirt. «ih engaged in hearing I ' 111 1'' 'im i ■ 111 « iig;iiu*t two iiion, Rov r diii li!ii.lp,- (2-|), ( .| Pr k, 0 f \v P |. ,in(J .liilin Kitching Matter«ou • who worn chargpd with hrpaking *' '"I ''''' ii'U' with intent to commit a '' 1 i ""< I willi assault cii lining actual Iporlilv liiii'in. Mi""< I'culon, who |s secretary of a 1 hi'ii t! <• i'iiiiipa ny in Vn|ii r r, told the ' "'nl' slip li\pt! alone. Whon slip returned homo on the night of April | Hi slip turned Hip electric switch, hut I I hero wuh no light. Tlipii, as she was i-tnking a match, she was nei/.pd about tin* klioiiUlimv*. "When [ sci-piuihml I win struck on Ihp liicp, hut it w in* ?mt a hpavv blow, i I screamed again, and receivi*! 'further j blows. [ then found myself on the floor? rhpro was a finger near my mouth, no I f bit it.. It wan covered, I think, with ft glovo." Neighbour's Arrival. Witness said her head wa« bumped several times on the floor. The pernon who attacked her fttiddenly left, and nlinont immediately a neighbour arrived at, the house. Witness then telephoned Ihe police, and went to the front gate, where *he saw a man detained by her neighbour and his «nn. She ha<l not neon who had assaulted her.

When a policeman arrived she borrowed his torch to go back into the house. As she *as approaching the back floor a man stepped out of the washhouse and said: "I'm in this." Witness said she could not identify the man who had been detained or the man whom she met at the washhouse. Evidence was given by a neighbour of Miss Boston, James McLean, and hie son, Alfred McLean. McLean, senior, said they heard screams and went to Miss Boston's house, which was in darkness. As witness went in a man ran through to the front of the. house, and witness, following him, found his son blocking the man's exit. Suspect Questioned. Witness also described the appearance of a second man who came from the buck of the house and said: "Oood evening. gentlemen. I'm in this, too." He won taken round to the front of the house, where the llrst man had been <lcta Ined. Constable W. G. Sharps said that when he arrived at tho house he <|ihm(ioneit Ma tterson, Who was pointed out In him as allegedly being the man who committed tho assault. Matterson said lie would explain at the police station, and witness placed him under arrest. Courlander thtsn stepped from the alleyway into tho porch and «aid, "Oood evening. I'm in on this party. If there's any fun, I'm in on It. Witness added that juet before he took the two accused aw ay in a taxi a man came up and said he had just chased a man who had run out of the front gate of Miss Reeton's home. Witness said he aaked the two accused whom the third man might be, but they refused to any anything. H) vide nee was given by Ernest Reginald Young, of Petone, that at Muttcrson's request he had loaned his car to Matterson ami another man. Mat- i terson had explained to witness that ho wanted to drive two men to Napier ' on oil business. Both Courlander and ' Matterson pleaded not guilty and were • committed for trial at Napier. i