CHARGE DISMISSED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20489, 25 February 1941, Page 2

CHARGE DISMISSED

INTENT TO MAIM TOKOMARU BAY CASE DISCHARGE OF RIFLE A charge of discharging a .22 calibre rifle with intent to maim was dismissed by IVJr. E. L. Walton, S.M., ip the Magistrate’s Court' in Gisbprne yesterday afternoon. The accused was Whare Pahina, aged 26, labourer, of Tokomaru Bay, who, however, was fined 10s and costs £1 12s 9d for unlawfully procuring possession of a firearm. The accused was represented by Mr. A. A. W’hitehead, and SeniorSergeant J. F. H. Macnamava conducted the case for the police. In dismissing the indictable charge, His Worship said there was ample evidence of the discharge of the firefirm, but no evidence of the direction in which the firearm was presented. There was evidence that thq firearm was discharged vyith intent to frighten, but not with intent to maim." That charge, therefore, would bp dismissed. In evidence, Frederick Nfiden, labourer, Tokomaru Bay, stated that on February 16 the witness loaned the rifle to the accused at the accused’s request, and Manu Turere, labourer, Tokomaru Bay, said he supplied the accused' with a full box of cartridges. Mrs. Francis Pahina, wife of the accused, said that her husband was drunk when he arrived home on February 18. She had started to go to her father-in-law’s place, pushing the baby in the pram, when she heard a shot from her house. Turning round, ghe saw the accused standing in front of the house, the rifle in his hands. •The witness sang out lor help and kept going. She heard another shot, and she then snatched the babv from' the pram. By that time she was well out of sight of the accused. She did not hear any bullets following the shots. Up to this time she and her husband had beerl quite friendly, although they' had had a few rows. The senior-sergeant: Has he ever threatened your life?—Only when he is drunk. He has threatened to hit me.

Mrs. Mereana Grant, Tokomaru Bay, said that she heard a shot, saw the previous witness running, and then heard a second shot.

Constable R. W. Beasley, Tokomaru Bay, said that the accused told him he fired two shots into the roof of the house to frighten his wife, who was running away with the baby. The witness searched the roof but could not see any holes that would represent a bullet hole.