CHAINED TO TRUCK

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 251, 20 July 1934, Page 13

CHAINED TO TRUCK

Then Driven to Police Station

NEIGHBOURS’ QUARREL “Scandalous” Disputes to be Stopped By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, July 19. Trouble in the Marshland district between neighbours, culminating in one man being driven to the City Police Station secured by a chain and padlock, was described in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, when John Michel Gearschawski was charged with using insulting words. He was convicted and required to enter Into a surety of £lOO to keep the peace. Arthur Reginald Myers, for assaulting Gearschawski on May 25, was required to enter into a surety of £2O to keep the peace. The magistrate. Mr. E. D. Mosley, said that the disputes in the Marshland district were a scandal, and he intended to put a stop to them. The senior-sergeant said that_the evidence was contradictory, At 7.10 p.m. on May 25 a telephone message was received at the watchhouse. At 8.15 Myers and a man named Lange came to the watchhouse and said they had Gearschawski in a truck outside. Several police went out. and were amazed to find Gearschawski chained securely in the truck. There was a large plough chain, or a chain of that sort, padlocked round his neck, and the other end was padlocked to the truck. Myers told the police that when Gearschawski went home from the city that day .Gearschawski was under tlie influence of liquor, and was heard to use strong language. At the police station, said the senior-sergeant, Myers demanded that Gearschawski be locked up, as he had gone mad. The sub-inspector was not satisfied that Gearschawski should be locked up, and it was- seen that Gearschawski was suffering from an injury. Inquiries made by the police resulted in the present two charges being laid. There had been trouble in the district for years past. The police said that Myers, in a statement, said that Gearschawski used bad language, raved like a lunatic, and threatened to kill him. Myers threw Gearschawski and held him down, and asked his wife to get a chain to. make Gearschawski safe until the police arrived. He put the chain round Gearscluiwski’s neck and padlocked it, and padlocked the other end to the lorry, Myers and Lance waited some time, but as* the police did not come they took Gearschawski to. the station. Myers was frightened that Gearschawski would kick him ou the head, so he took Lange with him. ~ „ * Gearschawski, in evidence, paid that Myers hit him on the shoulder, knocked him down, and then jumped on him. Later he was tied up. The remark was passed, “the police may not take linn because lie is sober.” Myers and Lange, who had been called, carried him from a paddock over a fence to Myers’s yard. When they arrived at the police station three constables came out and laughed when they saw him. One said, “That is the best I have ever seen.” Medical evidence was to the effect that Gearschawski, when admitted to hospital, complained of a pain in the right shoulder. There were abrasions of one ear, on the side of the face, and on one shoulder.