Appeal Submissions On Fatal Fight

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31421, 14 July 1967, Page 13

Appeal Submissions On Fatal Fight

(New Zealand Preet Attoelation)

WELLINGTON, July 12.

William Allan Pearse appealed today against hia sentence of four years’ imprisonment imposed by Mr Justice Haslam in the Wellington Supreme Court for manslaughter.

Pearse claimed in the Court of Appeal that the sentence was manifestly excessive. Evidence at the trial In Napier last month showed that James Edward Tenetahi Brown died after suffering injuries in a Ast fight with Pearse. Mr H. W. Dowling, for Pearse, submitted that there was a common intention to fight and that the injuries of themselves were not lethal. He said that the men were of equal size. Referring to the Judge’s statement that the appellant had ‘‘shrewdly selected" his "half-drunken victim,” Mr Dowling said that there was no evidence that the appellant had chosen his victim. Mr Bissom, for the Crown, submitted that Brown was not in any way belligerent or looking for a fight, whereas the appellant was. He said that it was the appellant who

gave the invitation to fight The Court which comprised Mr Justice Turner, actingpresident Mr Justice McCarthy, and Mr Justice Gresson, reserved its decision.