Petrol Bomb Thrown In House

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30795, 6 July 1965, Page 3

Petrol Bomb Thrown In House

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 5. Guests at a party in a house in Onehunga became fire-fighters after a petrol bomb crashed through the lounge window and burst into flames, Eric Louie told the Magistrate’s Court in Auckland today. Louie was giving evidence against Robert Pisarek, aged 36. a driver, who was committed to the Supreme Court for trial on charges of wilfully damaging the house with an explosive, wilfully damaging the contents of a room at the Auckland Central Police Station, and assaulting Louie. Louie said he was holding a party at his home on April 22 The police called after a complaint about noise. Soon after the police left, something was thrown through one of the lounge windows, smashing it. He and two friends went

to Pisarek’s house, which was opposite. Mrs Pisarek opened the door. “I didn’t get a chance to say anything because Pisarek hit me on the head .with something—it looked like a club,” he said. “We cleared off ” Louie said he had to go to hospital to have stitches put in a cut. Shortly after he returned, something else flew through the lounge window and burst into flames. “I heard breaking glass, and smelled petrol,” Louie said. He and the party guests fought the flames until the fire brigade arrived. The lounge wall, curtains and furniture were damaged by the fire. Bruce Wilson Power, a police sergeant, said Pisarek was in an “uncontrollable rage” when arrested and had to be overcome by force and handcuffed. He had been drinking but did not. seem to be unduly affected by liquor. Robert Perrin, a constable, said Pisarek admitted throwing petrol bombs through the

•window of Louie’s house, but asserted he had done so to protect himself and his family Perrin produced a beer bottle which he said he had found a third full of petrol, in Pisarek’s house. Gear on the bottle resembled a “Molotov cocktail.” Maurice Mildon, a police sergeant, said Pisarek was locked in a side room after being taken to the central police station. Later he heard a loud banging and saw the)

wooden panels of the side room door starting to splinter. They shattered and through them he could see Pisarek belabouring the door with a heavy piece of wood he had broken from a seat in the room. Then he picked up another piece of wood and hurled it through a window. Pisarek was in a “raging, maniacal mood and was yelling. screaming and mouthing obscenities,” said Mildon. It was some time before he could be overcome.