Brawler in tears

Press, 26 July 1978, Page 2

Brawler in tears

PA Napier A Filipino has been deported for the almost fatal battering of a Korean in Shakespeare Road, Napier, last Wednesday night. Alpido Marques Cabalquindo, aged 30, fourth engineer aboard the Unity Reefer, sobbed openly as his counsel entered a plea of guilty on his behalf in the Magistrate’s Court in Napier. , . Cabalquindo’s conviction means that he will lose his job and seaman’s ticket and never be eligible for a Government job. His wife and three children could now be destitute,

Mr W. K. L. Dougall, S.M., sentenced the Filipino to three months jail. However because his ship was’ due to leave, he ordered him put in the custody of the ship’s master and returned to the Philippines. He was charged With intending to injure Lee Jun Hoek, a Korean seaman. The conviction resulted from a late-night brawl after Korean and Filipino crewmen had been drinking at a Napier hotel. Before sentencing Cabalquindo, the Magistrate said he had no doubt there was an element of self-defence involved in the Filipinos’ fight with the Koreans.

Five persons were treated and discharged from Napier Hospital after the fight. The Korean was found slumped on a porch of a house and admitted to hospital in a critical condition. He had big fractures on the lower part of his skull and a fractured vertebra at the base of the neck.

The Koreans apparently outnumbered the Filipinos, and the latter resorted to the use of weapons more as a means of defence than attack, said the Magistrate. He said the Koreans would have inflicted great injury if police had not arrived when they did.