DRUNKEN VIOLENCE

Evening Star, Issue 23525, 14 March 1940, Page 17

DRUNKEN VIOLENCE

UNPROVOKED ATTACK ON WIFE PROCEEDS OF FARM GOING IN LIQUOR HUSBAND REMANDED IN CUSTODY Wliut was stated to bo a particularly brutal and vicious assault was described in the Police Court this ■morning when, before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., Henry Shirley Evans, aged 55, of Vauxliall, was charged with assaulting his wife. When asked to plead Evans said he remembered nothing about the events of the night before when the assault took place. According to Senior-sergeant Claasen, for the police, Evans is a man of some substance, but has been spending on an average £5 a week for some time past on liquor, and invariably, according to hiw wife, and upon; the word of Constable Brooks of Anderson’s Bay, he arrived home at night with 12 or 14 bottles of beer. Senior-sergeant Claasen said Evans arrived home at 5.40 p.m. last night in a drunken and very quarrelsome mood and 1 with 12 bottles of beer. He started to abuse hia wife and then attacked her with his fists, for no apparent reason. The wife was knocked about considerably, and when Constable Brooks arrived on the scone she was bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth. When arrested Evans violently resisted' and had to be forced into a conveyance. It appeared that accused had sold a farm some time ago, and was spending the proceeds at the rate of about £5 a week on liquor. WIFE’S STORY. In the witness box the wife stated she had been married to Evans a little over two years. Last night he came home drunk and for no apparent reason attacked her. She bad bacon and eggs ready for his tea, and when she handed this to him, he went to put them in the fire. She asked him not to do that, and he immediately attacked her, driving her into the wash-house and then into a convenience where he endeavoured to tip her up, head down in the water. His face was a dreadful colour, Mrs Evans said. In. the course of the struggle he struck his head against the door and momentarily she freed’ herself, but ho again caught her by her jersey jacket, the buttons of which burst off and. the garment was pulled from her back. She thus got free. . •“ I care for him, but I am terribly afraid of him. when he has drink, and he is not often without it,” the wife said. I am terribly afraid of his fists.” Her husband pottered round doing a little for" his father, who was ’retired, she said. They had sold a farm, atRotorua and divided the money, her husband’s share being about £3.000,: but he had built a nice house and furnished if nicely. CHRISTMAS INCIDENT. Asked by the Court if there had been trouble in the past, Mrs Evans replied: “ Just before Christmas he took a reap hook to my throat, and I saw death. I gave him a bottle of beer to quieten him. He bad accused me of stealing three of his bottles, but I generally keep a bottle handy to pacify "himi” There had been no trouble until about last June; prior to that Evans had never lifted, his hands to her. ' Mr’ Bundle: Have you ever hit your husband P-f—l'don’t dare to strike him. .He would> break my bones. Mr Bundle: I didn’t ask you if you dared. I asked: Have you ever hit him?—l might have hit him once. Questioned about last night’s incident, Mrs Evans said she tried to calm her husband for her own sake, he was in such a vile mood. Evans (questioning his wife): You took a knife to me once. The Wife: I never did such a thing. Evans: You struck me more than once. The Wife: I might have given you a bit of a push once flr twice. The Husband: I know all about a bit of a push. You did more than that. Turning to the Bench, Evans remarked: “ She is a very bad-tempered woman;” EVIDENCE OF CONSTABLE, Constable Brooks, of Anderson’s Bay, in - evidence, stated he received a telephone call from the Anglican Home at Waverley, and when he arrived at this place he found Mrs' Evans in a very distressed and nervous state. She was bleeding profusely from nose and mouth. He arrested the accused and proceeded to take him to a taxi. He violently resisted, and had to be forced into tho vehicle. At the time Evahs was very drunk and in a very violent temper. Senior-sergeant'Claasen explained the court that Evans was practically a confirmed drunkard and had been arrested for drunkenness in the streets.

Mr (Bundle: Does he do any work? ; The Senior Sergeant: No. sir. He lives on-the proceeds of the farm sold in the north._ I understand it is not unusual for him to take home 12 or 14 bottles of beer at nights. - : “ Constable Brooks informs me Evans is very near bordering on delirium tremens, and I might mention I have seriously considered suggesting to your worship that he might be remanded f6r a week for medical examination. It is my duty to draw your attention to his record. He is violent when in drink and not the _ (placid, meek . and mild-looking individual you now see in the dock. He has been convicted for assault and drunkenness, and his wife is entitled to some protection from him,” the Senior Sergeant said. He further explained that if Evans were remanded for a week he might sober up sufficiently and become clear 'enough in the head to realise fully the position, and it might be possible to avoid a separation between husband and wife. Mr Bundle remanded Evans in custody for a week, if necessary for medical examination. At the end of that time he could consider what was the best course to adopt, he said.