WINDOWS BROKEN

Evening Post, Issue 98, 27 April 1936, Page 11

WINDOWS BROKEN

SPITE AGAINST WELLINGTON

"I didn't like the disrespectful way the Wellington people treated me," was the rather curious excuse offered by Edward Joseph Barry, a labourer, aged 23, in the Magistrate's Court today, when he appeared, before Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M. Barry was charged with damaging a pane of glass to the value of £25,. the property of Barbara Andrews, and another pane to the value of £12, belonging to Aubrey Mark Cann.

Sub-Inspector C. E. Roach explained that a little after 9 p.m. yesterday the man had been seen standing in the doorway of Mr. Cann's tobacconist's shop in Vivian Street, talking to himself. He then stepped on to the footpath, and smashed the window with his foot. After walking down the road a little way, he put his foot through the window of a dressmaker's shop belonging to Miss Andrews. Some of the frocks displayed in the window were damaged by falling glass. The accused then stepped into another doorway and awaited developments. When a constable appeared the accused assaulted him with hands and feet, striking him in the face and also using his knee. After considerable trouble, he was taken in charge and placed in a cell, since when his condition had been quite normal. "The man is very unkempt, and at may be that he was hard up and wanted a few weeks' free board," concluded the sub-inspector, who had been interrupted several times by the accused.

Barry said that he had come from Auckland, and that he had been in Wellington since the day before Anzac Day. He had caused the damage because he did not like the way the Wellington people treated him. At first ho vehemently denied assaulting the constable, but later admitted pushing him away when he approached.

"I don't like the look of this man, sub-inspector," said the Magistrate. To this the prisoner objected strongly. "What sort of a statement is that to make?" he cried.

"I can quite understand it if you don't like the look of me either," replied the Magistrate. Sub-Inspector Roach said that the accused had said to the constable that "The crowd of mugs in Wellington had annoyed him."

The accused was convicted and sentenced to three months'' hard labour on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent. The Magistrate als6 gave instructions that the man was to be examined mentally.