Magistrate’s Court Alleged Assault With Intent To Injure

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 7

Magistrate’s Court Alleged Assault With Intent To Injure

Five men appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a joint charge of assaulting Stanley Arthur Anthony Beardsley on February 9 with intent to injure. All the accused elected trial by jury, and depositions were taken before Messrs H. T. Fuller and E. L. Tinker, Justices of the Peace. DetectiveSergeant J. P. Crozier prosecuted. The accused are Stanley Duke, aged 34 (Mr W. A. Wilson), Patrick Duke, aged 32 (Mr B. J. Drake), John Matthew Duke, aged 23 (Mr R. G. Blunt), Albert Bernard Duke, aged 22 (Mr G. R. Lascelles), and Michael Walter Mark Prenderville, aged 29 (Mr P, T. Mahon). All are workmen.

Beardsley, aged 22, an axeman, said that his car was struck by a truck driven by Albert Duke outside the Bower Hotel on February 9 about 5.30 p.m. He asked Duke what he was going to do about it, and while he was getting pencil and paper to take down particulars Duke drove off. Beardsley said he followed and stopped Duke. Duke got out of his truck and grabbed his shirt, ripping it. Duke then hit him in the stomach, and Beardsley hit back. Beardsley said he asked

Duke again what was going to be done about the car, but he could not get any sense out of him. He thought Duke was drunk. He left Duke and went to a friend’s place in Inwoods road, Burwood, to assess the damage, said Beardsley. He had been there about 15 minutes when five men arrived in a truck. A short man who, he thought, was Prendergast, got out and hit him on the nose. There had been no prior discussion.

Beardsley said he was knocked to the ground, picked up, and hit in the stomach. Somebody grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground again and he was kicked in the face. David John Commons, aged 19, a labourer, said the fighting started when the truck arrived. “From then on I didi” see Stanley (Beardsley) until we picked him up out of the fence.”

Evidence was given by two doctors and an ambulance driver that Beardsley suffered abrasions to the face and nose and had a cut lip. He was unconscious when taken to hospital Detective-Sergeant Crozier asked for a remand to April 3, as the constable who arrested the Duke brothers was not available to give evidence. The remand was granted, bail being allowed. (Before Mr A P. Blair, SM) ALLEGED THEFT

After electing trial by jury, James McCabe McDonald Swann (Mr D. H. Stringer) was remanded to April 10 on a charge of theft of a watch valued at £2O 12s 6d on February 15. A charge of theft of a bicycle to which Swann pleaded not guilty, was adjourned to April 10. Swann was convicted and ordered to be detained under the Shipping and Seamen Act on a charge of failing to apply for a passage out of New Zealand, or for an order allowing him to stay here. He pleaded guilty. For failing to notify a change of address, Swann was convicted and discharged. He pleaded guilty. OBSCENE LANGUAGE While being spoken to by a constable in Cathedral square at 7.40 p.m. on Tuesday, Barry Vincent Gardiner, aged 22, a workman, used obscene language, Senior-Sergeant G. M. Cleary said. Gardiner, who pleaded guilty, was fined £lO. TAX CHARGES For failing to furnish a return of income on August 7, 1961, John Raynor was fined £3. On two charges of failing to account for P.A.Y.E. deductions, Victor Gordon Stanley Ritchie was fined £4. Fines totalling £24 were imposed on Industrial Spray Painters, Ltd. (Mr R. G. Blunt), on seven charges involving taxation. It was fined £4 on each of five charges of failing to account for P.A.Y.E. deductions, and £2 on each of two charges of failing to furnish returns of income. NO RADIO LICENCE For having no radio licence, Derrick James Byrd was fined £l, Patrick Desmond Fox £l, and Betty Alice McDougall £2. REMANDED Charged with unlawfully getting into a motor-car on February 26, Ernest Harold Bland and Neill Ernest Nicolas Dempsey were remanded on bail to April 24 for the taking of depositions.