! SUPREME COURT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 22 May 1936, Page 6

! SUPREME COURT

| MAN ACQUITTED AT WANGANUI (United Press Association) l WANGANUI', 20th May. I Henry William .Hurley, a. butcher, of , Wait dura, charged with intent to de- | fe.it the course of justice, was acquiti ted by the jury in the .Supreme Court I to-day and discharged. It was alleged that Hurley attempted ■ to interfere with a witness in his em- | j,lov in a case in which a young man, j.nuoUter employee, was charged with ii,decent assualt. Evidence was given Ihat the accused endeavoured to perj sonde the witness to say that he was ; not sure of a statement he had made |to Detective Packman. The defence 1 was a complete denial of the allegajticn mid that the conversations the accused had with the employee related to the signing of 1 lie wages hook.

ADMITTED TO PROBATION George Burns, a married man, charged with assaulting George Gann, a lionrdei in his house. was found ti'iiiltv liv the jury to-day of assault, censing actual bodily harm. The prisoner was admitted to probation by Air Justice Smith and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution. The trial arose from happenings which occurred on the night of 17th April last, when Cann was admitted to hospital suffering from ti severe wound in the right arm. Mr J. Hussey, counsel for Burns, who set up a defence of provocation, stressed that Cann had caused an estrangement between Burns, his wife, and the family, and Burns had at last “boiled over.” Burns made a statement from the dock that lie had had four years’ war service and it had “all come hack to him.” He lost Ids head and .struck Cann with a knife. 'The jury returned with a verdict of guilty under extreme provocation and recommended the prisoner to mercy.