Woman sentenced for bar protest

Press, 28 July 1976, Page 4

Woman sentenced for bar protest

PA Wellington The 34-year-old woman who staged a protest to test the validity of a “men only” bar at the Victoria Tavern, in Petone, last April appeared for sentence in the Lower Hutt Magistrate’s Court. Vivienne Magda Porzsolt, then a freezing worker and now a trainee Wellington City bus-driver, was appearing for sentence before Mr F. Bremner, S.M., on charges of refusing to leave the saloon bar of the tavern and of resisting the police. She had been found guilty of both charges in a reserved judgment delivered by Mr Bremner this week. Counsel for Porzsolt, Miss Shirley Smith, submitted yesterday that her client was not a criminal. “She was taking a stand on what to her was a matter of principle,” Miss Smith said. Mr Bremner convicted Porzsolt and ordered her to come up for sentence if called upon within six months for refusing to leave the bar. He said that resisting the police was a different matter. The accused had made her protest and her actions should have been left at that. Porzsolt was convicted and discharged on the charge of resisting, on condition that she pay $4O to the cost of the prosecution and $l3 witness’s expenses.