Provocation Plea Made In Charge Of Assault

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29724, 18 January 1962, Page 7

Provocation Plea Made In Charge Of Assault

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, Jan. 17.

The circumstances were unusual, the police told Mr L. M. Inglis, S M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Hamilton today when Trevor James Bauren, aged 22, a dairy factory hand, pleaded guilty to assaulting Rewi Winstone Braithwaite Gera so as to cause him actual bodily harm. Detective Senior-Sergeant J G. Long said Bauren vas

married last May and he and his wife lived happily together. Gera commenced work at the Komakorau dairy factory, where Bauren was employed, and he made disparaging statements about Bauren’s wife.

Bauren saw. the factory manager who advised him to consult a solicitor. Bauren was “white with rage,” and on December 17 he procured a rifle, went to Gera’s hut and shot him in the wrist Gera was in hospital until December 28 Mr Long described Gera as a trouble-maker Bauren was not known to the police The manager of the factory spoke very highly of him as a worker.

The Magistrate said the charge was a serious one and Bauren was liable to be imprisoned for 14 vears for the offence Bauren had lost his temper, but he had no right to use a weapon He was ordered to come up for sentence, if called upon, within 12 months, and he was ordered to pay £2O towards the cost of the prosecution.