SERIOUS CHARGE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 9, 5 October 1927, Page 6

SERIOUS CHARGE

CONSTABLE SAID TO HAVE ASSAULTED PRISONER DISPUTE OVER A VEREY PISTOL “When the police arrested me on Saturday night 1 asked that they get in touch with the Mayor of Wanganui so that he could bail me out. _ This, however, they refused to do, with the result that I was forced to stay in the lock-up until Monday morning, Then again when I knocked at the door of my cell to ask for bail one of the constables struck me across the jaw and knocked me back on the bed.” This statement was made by George Bowman, a French polisher, aged 42, in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when he was charged with having carried a pistol in Dixon Street on Saturday, having presented it at Thomas Watson, and having kept it in his possession. for longer than seven days without having it registered. Accused, who was defended by Mr. B. J. Dolan, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Au official front the Arms Office said that the pistol—a Verey one—was capable of firing a cardboard flare cartridge, the projectile bursting into flame when it reached a certain height. It would be dangerous if it went off and hit anybody at close quarters. A. B. Sievwright, a barrister, of Wellington, was called as an expert witness. He stated that during the war he had been issued with a similar weapon while platoon commander. The pistol was used to send up a flare of light to illumine “No Alan’s Land.” Witness would not describe the pistol as a firearm in the true sense of the word. ■

Thomas Watson stated that early on Saturday evening while outside his boarding-house iu Dixon’Street'the accused, who was a total stranger to him, came along and threatened to “blow his head off.” When witness asked what the other would “blow his head off with,” accused produced the pistol. He took the weapon from Sowhian.

Sowman in the box said that while in Wanganui lie had been told by the police that there was no need to register the weapon, as it was not a firearm. In that city his children used to play soldiers with the pistol, and the police had seen it many times. Witness had. only been in Wellington a fortnight. He had one or two drinks on Saturday, but he was not intoxicated The only reason he had the weapon iu his possession was because it had been mended and he had just taken delivery of it. Mr. Dolan: You had some difficulty about trying to get bail, did you not, Sowman ? Witness: Indeed I did. I asked several times to try to get a bondsman, but the police refused to let me. Then one of them struck ’ me on the jaw.

Sub-Inspector Harvey: What did you say?—“l said one of them struck me on the jaw.” ' Where was this?—“At the Taranaki Street Police Station.” ,

Did you ask to be bailed out?—“Yes, I wanted them to get iu touch with the Mayor of Wanganui." Sub-Inspector Harvey: This" is a serious matter. You come to this Court and make allegations against the police. There will be an inquiry into this, so I want to know all about it.

Witness: Well, he may not have hit me on the jaw purposely. I knocked at the cell and he said, “what do you want,” and then pushed me. on the face so that I fell back on the bed.

Will you swear to that?—“Yes. But it’s over now and I don’t want to make a fuss about it. He may not have

meant to hit me on the jaw.” ' Why didn’t you tell us about this before?—“Because it might have been an accident.’’ Air. Dolan: He says it might have been an accident, Sub-Inspector, so we’ll let it go at that. Sub-Inspector Harvey: He has no right to say such things if it was an accident, because they are untrue. The Magistrate (Air J. H. Salmon) said that the charge of pointing a pistol would have to be dismissed, as Watson had stated in the box it had not been presented at him. Concerning the other charges the matter resolved itself into an academic question. “As a firearm is not defined under the N.Z. Act,” continued His Worship, “one must look in the dictionary for its meaning. The dictionary defines a firearm as ‘any weapon from which a bullet, shell, or missile is fired by means of an explosive.’- As the Verey pistol fires a missile—a cardboard cartridge by means of an explosive—the weapon must therefore be a pistol. In construing the act one has to take into consideration its purpose. It was designed to prevent the carrying of dangerous weapons, and in the present case the weapon is dangerous because if it were fired in a man’s face it would probably blind him. I therefore hold that it is a firearm, and will’have to be registered, although I understand it would be difficult to procure ammunition for it in this country. At the same time I do not consider the charges to be very serious, so I will convict accused and order him to pay costs for failing to register and for carrying the weapon.” His Worship also made an order that the weapon be forfeited.