APPEAL CASE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 235, 5 October 1942, Page 4

APPEAL CASE

I'SK OK PHI VAT K HOTEL Evidence, smarted on Wednesday, was concluded to-day in the appeal before Mr. Justice Smith by Percy Norman Wright (Mr. Hall Skelton and Mr. G. Skelton) against a conviction by Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M.. that, being the occupier or premises in Pitt Street, he knowingly permitted part of such premises to be used as a brothel.

In reply to evidence led by Mr. V. R. Meredith, for the Crown, as to improprieties seen in rooms booked by men for a day, or part of a day, the defence led evidence of the orderly conduct of the house generally, and of the appellant's practice of refusing rooms to men accompanied by unmarried women. Testimony was also given of the difficulty of keeping oversight on the rooms concerned, and of occasions when both men and women were found to have occupied the rooms by stealth.

Mr. Hall Skelton submitted that the element of knowledge of the presence of the women concerned was absent from the appellant's mind, and Mr. G. Skelton submitted that the legal implications imported by the terms "used as a brothel" were not satisfied by the evidence and casual immorality on one or two occasions.

'Proceeding.)