$500 FINE IMPOSED

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32706, 8 September 1971, Page 10

$500 FINE IMPOSED

Assault with / pistol

Janis Andrlksons, aged 86, retired, was fined $5OO by Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon on a charge of assaulting Constable Lincoln Janies Watts on July 7 with intent to obstruct him in the execution of his duty. Earlier in the day a jury had found Andrlksons guilty of the charge after a trial which began on Monday. The jury deliberated for an hour.

Evidence was given, at the trial that Constable Watts was struck on the tunic by a slug from a gas-operated air pistol held by the accused when two constables visited his home.

Mr C. B. Atkinson, for the prisoner, said that Andrlksons lived on a pension of $54 a month and obtained $46 a month for a flat in his house. His wife worked and he had savings of $7OO. The prisoner's health was not good and counsel submitted that although in normal circumstances this was a serious offence this case did not call for an exemplary penalty. The act of the prisoner was irrational when the police visited his home. The pistol looked dangerous, but was relatively harmless.

Mr G. K. Panckhurst, for the CroWn, said that the police wanted an order to be made preventing the prisoner from owning any type of firearm and that he be medically examined to see if psychiatric treatment was necessary. His Honour said that if anyone had asked him last week what was* the appropriate sentence for anyone who used firearms to prevent the police from performing their duty he would have said a sentence of some years imprisonment. However, he was not going to impose that sentence on the prisoner because of hie age, state of health, and impeccable record. The prisoner's action was so out of character and so silly and irrational that it was unlikely to be repeated. His Honour Mid he had considered placing the prisoner on probation so that the orders requested by Mr Panckhurst could be made, but he did not think that the prisoner was a suitable person for probation, and so had decided against it. “But I must impress on you and everyone else the seriousness of this offence,' 1 his Honour said. “You will be fined $5OO, which will take the greater part of your savings. Although I am making no order, 1 hope that you will dispose of the pistol and take medical adviqe; and don't do anything an silly again.”

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