Man fired rifle after row

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 4

Man fired rifle after row

A Sumner man who fired two shots at his wife’s cigarette lighter out of spite after a domestic argument i was found guilty in the iMagistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of discharging the rifle near a dwelling. William Leslie Maylor, -aged 50, pleaded not guilty to the charge as well as a charge of unlawfully carrying a firearm. The latter charge was dismissed by Mr !F. G. Paterson, S.M. He was I fined $75 for discharging the rifle. Part of Sumner was cordoned off by the police armed offenders squad on November 7 when it was be- [ lieved that Maylor was in ipossession of a loaded .22 Browning rifle after an alternation with his wife. A statement made to the police by the defendant, which was read out in Court, said that Maylor iknew that his wife was igoing out with a Samoan land that this was too much (for him. On the Friday night i before the incident, Maylor had left on a fishing trip, ! returning on the Saturday 'night. “My wife was not home,” | the statement said. “She did not come home all night. She came in at 11.30 a.m. on i Sunday and when 1 asked 'her where she had been she I wouldn’t tell me.” ' There was a scuffle between them, with Maylor! (holding on to her wrists. During this scuffle. Maylor | mentioned that the rifle was| loaded. I “But I only said this soi that she would tell me, where she had been,” he’ said in a statement. Later that afternoon, when iMaylor said he was “boozed { but not drunk”, he had thrown his wife’s fancy I table cigarette lighter out of

[the window, and when he I saw it glinting in the sun, Ihe fired two shots at it. ;Both these shots went into the ground near the lighter in the backyard of his house in Wiggins Street. Giving evidence in his defence, Maylor said that he did not know that the police were around the house, or that the armed offenders squad was watching him. Nobody from the police had spoken to him about the incident. Under cross-examination by the police prosecutor. Sergeant D. Gibson, Maylor admitted that he had fired at the cigarette lighter in the garden out of spite as it belonged to his wife and he was very upset. Counsel (Mr G. R. Lascelles) submitted that his client was carrying a rifle for a lawful purpose at the time, and he had a current 1 certificate of registration. Maylor had discharged the rifle in the backyard because he wanted to empty it of the two cartridges inside it. Maylor had returned from a hunting expedition near Lake Coleridge and the rifle was still loaded. Because it had a faulty ejector clip, he preferred to discharge the rifle into the ground rather than try to use the ejector/ he said. An application for sup-i pression of name of the j defendant was refused bvl the Magistrate. “1 accept that your state; of tension arose from a domestic matter but what does concern me is that you! became a danger to the community and acted irresponsibly with a lethal weapon," the Magistrate said. The order for the forfei-j ture of the rifle was made. WOUNDING CHARGE A man charged with

wounding with intent wasi remanded to Sunnyside hos-| pital for a psychiatric report! to December 7. The remand was at the! request of the man's counsel! (Mr K. N. Hampton) who said that the defendant was already in the custody of the hospital. The man, whose name has been suppressed in the! interim, did not appear in court yesterday and Mr| Hampton said it was pos-' sible that the defendant! would not be fit to plead to the charge. Before Mr B. A. Palmer S.M.! 17 CHARGES DENIED ; A youth who appeared on h 14 charges of burglary, one! of which was the burglary!

iof a yacht at Sumner, (elected trial by jury on the icharges when he appeared in court yesterday. Glenn Raymond Larson was remanded to January 10 Tor the taking of depositions ion those charges. He also pleaded not guilty to one charge each of car con- ! version, delivering a .22 rifle to an unauthorised person, and breach of periodic (detention. On those charges ; he was remanded to January 11 for a defended hearing. Larson waa remanded in custody. Tannls.—Jimmy Connors, ro- ; lentlesaly attacking from the i back court has scored a close 16-4. 6-4 winner-lake-all match for j SUSIO.ODO against Vitas Gerulaitii in the »L’5320,000 world cham--1 pionship of tennis challenge cup