CHARGES OF ASSAULT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 244, 14 September 1932, Page 7

CHARGES OF ASSAULT.

TRIAL AT NEWCASTLE.

Received September 14, 9.50 a.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 14. After a retirement of seven hours the jury at Newcastle found a verdict of not guilty concerning 18 of the 30 men charged with assault and obstruction of the police during the eviction at Highfield last June. The jury was locked up for the night deliberating on the other cases.

In announcing the acquittals the foreman said that in the opinion of the jury there was not sufficient evidence to convict 18 of the accused.

Tho 30 men beforo tho Court were arrested on Juno 14, when nine policemen and about 20 unemployed pickets wero injured, some of them severely, in a dcsperato anti-eviction fight at a cottage at Highfield, Newcastle. The affray started when a small army of policemen descended upon tho cottage with tho intention of evicting the tenant. Tho unemployed were in possession of tho cottage. They were armed with all sorts of weapons, chiefly pointed sticks. Tho polico rushed the place brandishing their Batons. They wero met by fierce opposition. Blows were exchanged which felled one man after another amid tho wildest shouting. It was not long beforo several of the combatants lay on tho ground insensible. Every few minutes injured men ran out of tho cottago and took refuge among tho crowd of onlookers. The task of the polico was unenviable, but they soon had tho _ upper hand. A brick thrown at ono policeman missed its mark, but felled an onlooker. Tho battle ended as suddenly as it had started. Subsequently, ambulance men worked for an hour rendering first aid and conveying tho injured to hospital.