Punch caused woman to lose two front teeth

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 22

Punch caused woman to lose two front teeth

A Levin man who punched a young woman on her cheek and jaw, causing her to have two front teeth removed, and stole a leather jacket which she was minding for the owner, pleaded guilty in the District Court yesterday to charges of assault and theft. The defendant, Eric Anthony David Brown, aged 21, unemployed, was scheduled to have faced trial by jury in the District Court on these charges. Upon his pleas of guilty, Judge Fraser remanded him in custody to October 28 for a probation report and sentence on these charges, and for sentence also on a number of charges on which he had been remanded from the District Court in Palmers-

ton North, after pleading guilty.

Brown had been committed for trial after a preliminary hearing in August on the charge of assaulting Rachel Anne Hamilton, and alternative charges of robbing Miss Hamilton of the leather jacket, valued at $l5O, or of stealing the jacket from her, on June 19. Evidence heard at the preliminary hearing was that Brown, who had arrived in Christchurch from Levin four days earlier, had gone to, the Department of Social Welfare, in Manchester Street to get money to return to Levin. He was given $l2O. As he was leaving the office, he picked up a leather jacket which Miss Hamilton was minding for a friend as she wrote an

application for employment ,<

Brown told her that if she wanted- the jacket back she had better step outside. <' -

She and her friend followed him out Outside, he accused her of stealing the jacket from his girl friend’s car. After she and her friend remonstrated with him, Brown punched Miss Hamilton on the cheek and jaw.

She was taken to hospital by a constable as she felt faint and had lost some control of her legs. Two front teeth were removed because of damage from the blow. Brown was not found until August 3. At first he had denied knowledge of the incident, when questioned by the police.