SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27641, 23 April 1955, Page 9

SUPREME COURT

APPEAL AGAINST CONVICTION

JUSTICES OF PEACE UPHELD

The conviction of a man by two Justices of the Peace for assaulting a police sergeant and . for being found drunk were upheld on appeal by Mr Justice McGregor in the Supreme Court yesterday. His Honour quashed the fine of £lO imposed by the Justices of the Peace and substituted a fine of £2, saying that the appeUant would have to bear heavy expenses for the appeal. The appellant was David Maxwell Vincent, a sawmiller, of Ashley Vincent was convicted on September 27 by Mr J. A. Ivory, J.P., in the Magistrate's Court at Hangiora bn a charge of assaulting Sergeant G. Urquhart in the lawful execution of his duty and on a charge of drunkenness. He was fined £lO on the first charge and discharged on the second. The charges were reheard in the same Court before Mr Ivory and Mr S. G. Dailey JJ», on October 20, when the convictions and the sentence was confirmed. Mr J. G. Leggat, with him Mr L. G. Holder, appeared for Vincent and the Crown Prosecutor (Mr A. W. Brown) for the Crown. Mr Brown said the charges arose out of a visit to the Ashley Hotel on September 25 last year by Sergeant Urquhart and Constable J. B. Gott soon 4 p.m. The evidence would show that his conduct while the police were in the hotel and later was that of a drunken man. Cross-examined by Mr Leggat, Sergeant Urquhart admitted that since the lower Court proceedings he had been charged under the Police Regulations with using undue force. “I clipped a youth under the ear,” he said. The charge was found to have been proved and £3 was deducted from his pay, he said. Other evidence, along the lines of that given in the lower Court, was called. As to the assault, said Mr Leggat, he claimed that Vincent’s action was without malice, and that it could more appropriately be described as disorderly behaviour; he conceded that it was a technical assault. His Honour said he considered that the events after the arrival of the police showed that the accused was under the influence of drink It was practically admitted that Vincent “embraced or tackled or put his arms the legs of the sergeant, whether this was a gesture of joviality or affection it does not seem to me that any sober person would do that.” He upheld the decision of the Justices of the Peace in convicting Vincent on each charge. Although an assault on a police sergeant was normally a serious affair tins was less serious than most such offences. Having some regard to the heavy expenses Vincent would have to bear he would quash the penalty of £lO for assault and substitute a fine of £2. He ordered Vincent to pay the costs of the appeal, which be fixed at £l2 12s, with disbursements and witness’s expenses.