ATTACKED BOY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30190, 23 July 1963, Page 21

ATTACKED BOY

Gaol For Two Men

(N.Z. Preu Association) • .'ERCARGILL, July 22.

Two 21-year-old workmen. Steve Tawhiti and Ar ahi Hira. attacked a 14-year-old boy in Dee street. Invercargill, on Saturday night without provocation, cutting his lip and making him dazed, the Invercargill Magistrate's Court was told today. Hira. who was said to have been the instigator of the offence, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment by Mr J. K. Patterson. S.M. Ttfwhiti was sentenced to two weeks’ imprisonment.

Both pleaded guilty but offered no explanation for the attack Hira agreed with the Magistrate that it was entirely unprovoked.

Senior-Sergeant T. V. Thomson said the boy was standing outside a theatre in Dee street when Hira walked up to him and asked him if he wanted a fight The boy; did not answer and Hira grabbed him by the front of the coat, tearing a button off.

Tawhiti knocked the boy, Lex John Hamill, to the ground and Hira stepped in and tried to make his friend move away. Then without warning, Hira swung around and struck the boy a blow, again knocking him to the ground. The boy got back on to his feet only to be knocked down by another blow from Tawhiti. As a result of the attack the boy suffered a out lip and was dazed. The attack was completely unprovoked, said Senior-Sergeant Thomson.

To the Magistrate, Tawhiti said he did “not know what made him do it.”