SOLDIER IMPRISONED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 307, 23 September 1944, Page 8

SOLDIER IMPRISONED

Throwing Empty Bottles At Athletic Park “The practice of throwing empty bottles at Rugby football matches at Athletic Park is very prevalent, said Senior-Sergeant G. J. Paine, in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday, when Patrick Keith Daly, soldier, aged 22, pleaded not guilty to having assaulted a constable at the park on Saturday last, and guilty to a charge ot having thrown a bottle. Remarking that it was a dangerous practice, the magistrate, Mr. Stilwell, imposed a sentence of one months imprisonment on the charge of throwing a .bottle. Defendant was convicted and discharged on the other charge. The senior-sergeant said that the number of bottles thrown from the western bank and also from the main stand at football matches at Athletic Park ou Saturday afternoons was amazing and it was surprising that someone bad not been seriously injurec.. or even killed, by the practice. It might be necessary to frame regulations against such bottle-throwing. Defendant had been heard on the western bank last Saturday afternoon to say, ‘ What do you bet’ I can’t hit that cop,” and had then thrown an empty beer bottle, which bounced on the turf, and knocked the constable’s helmet off. Constable P. J. Lawlor said he was sitting behind accused, and heard him offer "the bet that he could hit the constable with the empty bottle, and accused admitted at the police station that he had made this foolish bet.