ASSAULT AT DANCE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29536, 10 June 1961, Page 16

ASSAULT AT DANCE

“Thug” Sent To Gaol For Year He regarded the assault as a particularly bad one, and the prisoner had previous convictions for violence, said Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court yesterday when he sentenced John Richard Vivian, aged 19, a driver, to 12 months’ gaol on a charge of assaulting Wayne Beaton during a dance at the Scottish Society Hall in March. Vivian had gone into the dance hall, where decent, law-abiding citizens- were enjoying themselves and, with another young fnan, assaulted a youth without provocation, his Honour said. "Your behaviour was that of a young thug,” his Honour said to the prisoner. For Vivian, Mr B. J. Drake said that other youths had been sentenced in the lower Court after the serious disturbance at the dance in the Scottish Society Hall where the assault was committed. From the time Vivian was spoken to by Sergeant Bailey at the dance he had behaved himself and had not resisted the police, nor had he behaved in a disorderly

manner as others at the dance had. The jury, by its verdict of not guilty on the charge of assault causing actual bodily harm, had exculpated Vivian from causing the split lip, damaged nose and concussion suffered by Beaton, Mr Drake said. Vivian had been given Borstal training for a previous offence but now appeared to have learnt his lesson in having respect for those in authority. He was now in employment that suited him and was giving his employers’ every satisfaction. Mr Drake asked the Court to release Vivian on probation and order that he pay a proportion of the costs of his trial. Mr C. M. Roper, for the Crown, submitted that it was relevant that Vivian had been prepared to go into the witness box and tell lies about his part in the affair. The fact that he had lied could be inferred from the probation officer's report.