APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 7 July 1932, Page 5

APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

WELLINGTON RIOT CONVICTION. CASE IN .SUPREME COURT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) iWELLINGTON, June 6. An echo of the disturbance which took place in a vacant section in Cuba Street on May 11 and which ended in the police making a baton charge against the crowd wa's heard in the Supreme Court to-day, (when Thomas Thomson, labourer, appealed against a sentence of twelve months’ imprisonment imposed upon him in the Police Court by Mr E. Page, SiM., on May 14. Thomson was charged that he was a rogue and vagabond in that he had been armed with offensive weapons—five nuts, two bolts and a large stone. The case will be resumed to-morrow.

The assistant Crown prosecutor outlined the events which took place on May 11 and the incident which led to the arrest of Thomson. Detective Kane said he saw; Thomson in Vivian Street on the afternoon of May 11, when' a meeting was held by relief work strikers in the Trades Hall. In addition to those in the hall there was a large crowd outside. He saw Thomson among the crowd, a large section of which was hostile to the police. Thomson was moving about from group to group and was very active. About 4 p.m. the crowd commenced to move from the hail to upper Cuba Street. During the march Thomson was calling out loudly and inviting everyone to follow. Special constables were stationed at the junction of Vivian Street and Cuba Street and on passing them Thomson called: “There is going to be trouble and then it will be good-night to you jokers.” Constable R. Hollis said that at 5.55 p.m. on May H Re saw Thomson hi Cuba Street. Thomson appeared to be annoying pedestrians. Hollis and another constable spoke to Thomson and he heard something drop on the pavement behind Thomson. He found this to be a large nut. Thomson was then searched .and upon him was. found a stone and a bolt about inches in length. Thomson made no explanation and was taken to the Mount Cook police station and charged. When he was searched steel nuts were found in liis pockets. Hollis saw Thomson again after the crowd has been dispersed from the section. He was raising himself from the ground and rubbing bis back.

Constable McNutt corroborated the evidence of Constable Hollis. When arrested, Thomson lent the impression that he, had been drinking earlier in the day. The appellant, a relief worker, said he was 35 years of aige and was born in England. He arrived in the Dominion when he was 17 years of age. He had been on relief work for the past 18 months. He was making a hand-barrow and this was the reason he had the holts and nuts when he wa|s (arrested. On the day of the march to Parliament he called at a shop to get some bolts and nuts. He had a number of drinks that day. He detailed his movements on the afternoon and evening of May 11 but said bis recollection of the events was a trifle hazy. The first tiling he remembered was when he found himself lying on the ground in the section in Cuba Street. He bad been hit on the back. The Rev. F. M. Kempthorne, vicar of St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Ka rori, said he had known Thomson for two years and had heard nothing against his character. Thomson had called upon him seeking work and the oeople he had worked for had asked for him again.