ABDUCTION CHARGE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28284, 23 May 1957, Page 16

ABDUCTION CHARGE

Crown Case Outlined

David Teoawera Nihoniho, aged 27, an assistant linesman, is on trial before Mr Justice Stanton and a jury in the Supreme Court on a charge that on February 28 at Lyttelton he took a girl aged 17 years and six months from the control of her parents with intent to know her carnally. Mr M. C. Gresson, Crown Prosecutor at Timaru, is appearing for the Crown. Mr D. J. Clark is appearing for Nihoniho, who pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Crown case was opened yesterday and the hearing was adjourned to this morning. On the application of the Crown Prosecutor an order was made prohibiting publication of the names of all witnesses except police officers, This was an unusual case. It was one of abduction of a girl under the age of 18, said Mr Gresson, stating the Crown case to the jury. It was against the law for a man to take a girl under 18 to a place where she would be out of the control of her parents with intent to know her carnally. It was immaterial whether the gir] was taken with her consent or at her suggestion. The girl left school in Decern-, ber last and was due to begin her studies at the university in March, said Mr Gresson. With the consent of her parents she got a job in Christchurch at the beginning of January. Soon after that she met Nihoniho at a dance and from then on they kept company. They met nearly every night and had sexual intercourse on a number of occasions. She told him she was 17 and a half years and he said he was 27. They decided to go to Wellington together and proposed to live there as man and wife. Found on Steamer

The girl went home on February 20 and returned to Christchurch on February 22, said Mr Gresson. She had told her parents that she was going to change her employment but they objected and told her to return home. She was expected at her home on February 25. A letter addressed to her at her home was opened and her parents learned she was going to- go away with Nihoniho. They got in touch with the police who found that a Mr and Mrs D. Nihoniho were booked to travel on the ship Maori from Lyttelton to Wellington on February 28. Constable Adams went to the ship Maori and saw Nihoniho and the girl in a cabin, said Mr Gresson. He took them to the Lyttelton police station. Nihoniho made a statement saying he knew the girl was 17 years and a half, and that he had persuaded her to go to Wellington and live with him until they could be married. The Crown submitted that though the girl was living in Christchurch, that was only temporary and she was still under the lawful charge of her parents in the country, for she intended to go home before beginning her studies at the university, said Mr Gresson. Evidence was being given by the girl when the hearing was adjourned to this morning.