Girl passenger shoved constable off bicycle

Press, 17 January 1979, Page 5

Girl passenger shoved constable off bicycle

A girl said in a police statement that she had always wanted the sensation of shoving someone from behind. So she leaned out of a car going along Breezes Road on December 8 and touched a man riding a bicycle, causing him to crash between parked cars, Mr D. B. Pain, S.M. was told in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Dawn Marie McDonald, aged 18, a meat packer, pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to a charge of assaulting Bruce Raymond Cardwell, a police constable.

She was fined $5O and ordered to pay $lOO to the constable as restitution for the damage to his racing bicycle. The prosecution (Ser-

geant C. J. Shannahan) said that on December 8 the defendant was a passenger in a car being driven by her brother at 11.10 p.m. She leaned out the window and pushed the constable, who was on his way home from the New Brighton police station. He was only partly in uniform. The car was then driven off at high speed without its lights on. The defendant admitted the offence when she was later arrested. She said she had attended the funeral of her uncle during the day and had done the act “for a laugh.” Counsel (Mr H. C. Cottrell) said that the incident was an unfortunate end to a sad day.

He said that after the funeral the defendant had gone with her family to a relative’s home where she had some drink. After that she had gone to a hotel where she had more to drink. Later her brother drove her and some other people around Christchurch and it was then when she saw the man on the bicycle. Counsel said that she only intended to touch him. “He put his hand out perhaps to fend her off and it was a mutual couching of hands.” The force used was disputed by Sergeant Shannahan. Summing up, the Magistrate said that roads were already dangerous enough without additional hazards being created.