PRISON FOR MAN WHO HIT POLICEMAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22761, 6 October 1948, Page 6

PRISON FOR MAN WHO HIT POLICEMAN

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, Oct. 4. For assaulting the senior sergeant of police at Otahuhu on the night of Saturday, September 25, Anthony Maxwell Margin, aged 20, labourer, was today sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour.

Senior-Sergeant Joseph McGrath told the magistrate, Mr. H. J. Wily, that the accused was pursuing his barefooted wife along the roadway. “I told him who I was," the witness said. “Without warning he' struck me with his clenched fist, knocking me to the ground and bruising my left jaw. I rose and secured him. He broke away and struck me a vicious blow, fracturing my nose.

“When I flashed a torch to identify him he took a bottle of beer from his pocket and said; ’Come on, copper.’”

Witness took the accused to the police station, where Margin again attacked him. The accused had had some beer, but was not intoxicated. Counsel for the defence said accused had been to a family party and had taken too much beer. He was willing to take out a prohibition order. The magistrate said the accused was not yet 21 and was legally forbidden to enter hotels.

Replying to a request for probation, the magistrate said: "Probation is not available in cases of this nature. It was a particularly vicious assault.”