RICCARTON HOTEL

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 December 1934, Page 7

RICCARTON HOTEL

AN UNWELCOME VISITOR BARMAN ASSAULTED [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, December 17. In the Police Court this morning, Leonard Stanley Dunford, a salesman, and showman," charged with assaulting Charles Theodore Chaney, a barman at the Riccarton Racecourse Hotel on November 5 last, pleaded not guilty. Evidence for the prosecution alleged that the accused and othei’ man booked rooms at the hotel in November, under fictitious names. Their conduct was such that Mrs Fraser, licensee of the hotel ordered that they be put off the premises. Chaney did so. Later, the men returned and attacked him. Dunford, it was alleged, hit Chaney on the head with a stone. Chaney, questioned by counsel for the accused, said he was working on the racecourse at the time of the murder of Donald Fraser, earning £3 17/weekly. When he took a job as barman, he got £4. He denied that he put Dunford out because he was talking to Mrs Fraser and witness was jealous. Witness added that one of the men said: “There has been one murder here,. and there will be another one to-night.” Evidence of the assault was corroborated by Willidm Alexander Muir, a relieving barman. Mrs Fraser said she had asked the men to leave, when told by a waitress they “were not good men.” Chaney was employed by her as barman and manager.

Dunford was convicted and fined £l. Witnesses’ expenses were not allowed.