ASSAULT AT, SEA

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31290, 9 February 1967, Page 3

ASSAULT AT, SEA

Remand For Sentence

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Feb. 8.

Rameshwar Prasad, aged 21, a labourer, was convicted by Mr F. McCarthy, S.M., today on a charge of indecently assaulting a woman in a toilet aboard a liner as it lay in the Hauraki Gulf.

Prasad (Mr J. Beder) pleaded not guilty to the assault, which the police said took place on the Oriental Queen in the early morning of January 8. Giving evidence, Prasad said that he had been drinking heavily that night. When he rettirned to his cabin he felt dizzy and went to go to the toilet He mistook the women’s toilets for the men’s and pushed open a door to one of the cubicles.

Suddenly he noticed a woman seated in the cubicle, Prasad said. He took fright lost his balance and put his hands out to steady himself. His hands had fallen on the neck of the complainant. Prasad said he panicked and ran from the toilets. The Magistrate said he was quite satisfied, after hearing the evidence, that Prasad had wandered into the women’s toilet in a drunken state. The question was whether he had formed an intent to commit the assault.

“When he came out of the toilet his actions were those of a man who knew he had done wrong,” the Magistrate said. He remanded Prasad to February 15 for a probation officer’s report and sentence.