Inoffensive Man Charged With Manslaughter

Northern Advocate, 29 May 1940, Page 3

Inoffensive Man Charged With Manslaughter

} [Per Press Association Copyright.] WELLINGTON, This Day. Charged with committing manslaughter by killing Keith Francis Joseph Sisson, 35, labourer, Thomson Yandall, 39, carpenter, a native of Samoa, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon. The hearing of the police evidence occupied the whole afternoon. The court adjourned until today. Barman’s Evidence. John Joseph Darrogh, barman, described how Sisson and a companion named Sharp became involved in a fight in the bar of an hotel. Darrogh put out Sharp, who returned, but was ejected by another barman. He was pushing Sisson backward through the door of the hotel when something happened which caused Sisson to fall backward on to the pavement. He believed someone behind him had struck Sisson. Yandall was not involved in the fight in the bar. “I Hit Him.” Frederick William Roffe, superintendent of the Wellington Free Ambulance, said he saw Sharp and Sisson ejected from the hotel. As the barman who had ejected Sisson re-entered the hotel, he saw Yandall and another man standing in the door. Sisson rushed at Yandall, who punched him in the face. He staggered back and fell heavily on the footpath. Constable E. S. Tuck gave evidence that Yandall said: “I’m the man you’re looking for. I hit him. I thought he was going to attack me, but the barman will tell you all about it.” Tuck said Yandall was quite an inoffensive man, without previous convictions.