DISTURBANCE IN CABARET

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25608, 24 September 1948, Page 3

DISTURBANCE IN CABARET

CHARGES DISMISSED BY MAGISTRATE “ DEFENDANT ACTED AS ANY DECENT MAN WOULD ” “Defendant acted as any decent man would when in charge of a woman partnei' on such an occasion,” said the Magistrate. Mr Rex C. Abernethy, when Donald Alexander Noel Mcßae, a chairmaker, of Christchurch (Mr R. A. Young), who pleaded not guilty, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on charges of using. indecent language in the lounge of the Winter Garden on August 27, when a dance was in progress, and with wilfully damaging a pane of glass valued at £l, in a door at the Winter Garden, the property of P. Burke and Company, Ltd., thereby committing mischief. The Magistrate dismissed the charges.

Accused had an unblemished record, and had represented New Zealand at cricket and Association football, said Mr Young. While at the Canterbury Sailing and Power Boat Association’s annual ball, McRae’s partner was indecently assaulted by another man. Accused weht after him, caught him by the scruff of the neck, and asked him to apologise. The man said nothing, and put up his fists. Mcßae hit him. People standing around interfered, and Mcßae was forced on to a coucli in the lounge by sheer weight of numbers. He saw. a man brandishing a flower-pot above him and saying ‘‘shall I get him with this?” They threw Mcßae out the door, but his foot was in it, and when they closed the door the pane of glass was broken. Mcßae had since replaced the pane. If he was convicted on the charges it would seriously jeopardise his sporting activities next season, said Mr Young

W. A. Hadlee, an accountant, said that accused had never been in trouble before. He had been with. Mcßae in Canterbury and New Zealand cricket teams.

For tne prosecution, Lewis Frederick Tanner, a steward at the Winter Garden said there was a fight in progress about midnight. A man was knocked out on the floor and accused was fighting two or three others. Accused used bad language, and when he was put out he put his foot through the pane in the door. It took four men to put him out of the hall.

"Accused’s decent instincts were aroused. He acted foolishly, but that was io be expected in the circumstances. We all do foolish things at times,” said the Mug I Strato. “The person knocked out apparently does not wish to come to Court to give evidence. Having heard all the evidence. I am not very surprised. On the charge of wilful damages I am not satisfied at all that he intended to damage the door. J do not think the stewards knew what had happened." he added.

Senior-Sergeant J. J. Kearns prosecuted. A third charge against Mcßae, of having intoxicating liquor in his possession at the Winter Garden, was withdrawn by the police.