Six weeks gaol for axe attack

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34009, 25 November 1975, Page 22

Six weeks gaol for axe attack

A 35-year-old man who attacked his wife with an axe was gaoled for six weeks by Mr B. A. Palmer, S.M. “Anyone appearing for an assault of this type can expect the same treatment.” the Magistrate told Sureya Deo Pillay, aged 35, a selfemployed signwriter. “I have the greatest respect for the Indian people and I do not want you to leave the court thinking you have been treated differently

from anyone else,” the Magistrate said. Pillay (Mr G. M. Brodie), had pleaded not guilty to the charge, which arose from a domestic dispute on October 12, but had been convicted. Pillay entered his wife’s bedroom and asked her to stop their separation. When she refused to do so, Pillay left the bedroom and returned with an axe. He struck his wife three times as she huddled under the bedclothes. Mrs Pillay then ran out of the house, the defendant chasing her, and escaped to a neighbour’s home. Counsel submitted that although the assault was “not the least serious to come before the court,” Mrs Pillay had not needed medical treatment.' The defendant was a first offender whose actions had been prompted by a very strained domestic situation, Mr Brodie said. The Magistrate said that a background of domestic strife was no excuse for assault. “You attacked your wife I with a deadly weapon,” he told Pillay. “If she had not fled, the consequences could (have been much more iserious.”