POLICE COURT.—Monday.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5372, 4 February 1879, Page 3

POLICE COURT.—Monday.

[Before R. C. Barstow, Esq., R.AT.]

Drunkenness.—Four persona were mulcted in the usual penalties for this offence. Negligent Parent.—Antonio Nicholson was charged with being £35 in arrears of contributions towards the support of his children in the Naval Training School, Mr. Pardy said the defendant had paid £5 ss, and ho asked for a further remand for a month, which wasgrauted. Larceny.—Joseph Welling was charged with stealing pawn-tickets, value £2, the property of James Kavanagh. Thecasehad been remanded to enable the police to find the woman from whom prisoner said he got the tickets. They had been unable to find her up to the present, and a further remand was applied for, so that, in justice to the prisoner, they might be able to produce this woman. The police were anxious to give him fair-play. He was trying to dispose of the tickets when he was arrested. A remand was granted until Thursday next. Masters and Apprentices Act.—Louis You was charged with neglecting to instruct one Henry Augusta Aimable Le Houx, his apprentice. Mr. Tyler, who appeared for the complainant, said that both parties to the contract—the father of the boy and the defendant — came to him and informed him that they had come to a settlement which would involve the cancelling of the indentures, and he now asked his Worship to canccl them. The Bench agreed to make an order of cancellation.

Indecent Assault. — Charles Veith was ! charged with indecently assaulting Rora Kn.ii- ! peka, a Maori woman. Mr. E. Hesketh apj peared for the prisoner. Mr. Pardy, who prosecuted, stated the circumstances of the case, as , detailed in the Herald yesterday morning. [ Mr. Brown was sworn as interpreter, and .the , prosecutrix, a respectably-dressed, modest-look--1 ing woman, with a baby in her arms, deposed I that her husband's name was Qenare Kaupeka. I She knew the prisoner. # Her husband and herself went to lodge at prisoner's house on Friday I last, and their sleeping-place was a room upstairs. On Saturday evening last she went to bed with her children some time after tea, when it was dark. She took off her outer clothing, attended to the children, and fell asleep, but prior to lying down she locked the room door, leaving the key in the lock. She lay outside the bed-clothes. Her husband had gone to the theatre. She was awakened by a man pulling at her legs. It was the prisoner who was pulling at her, and her clothing was up about her waist, and prisoner had hold of her knees. She cried out, "Go away, pakeha," and began to cry. She took her children, one on her back and the other in her arms. Prisoner rushed out of the room, and when she left the room prisoner came up again and took the key from the inside of the room and put it in the lock on the outside. This was when she was on the point of coming downstairs. She came out of the house to the verandah, folded her clothes, aud went to tho theatre to fetch her husband. She purchased a ticket and went in, saw her husband, and told him what had happened, upon which they came out to look for a policeman and found Constable Dodd, whom she recognised in Court. She went straight from the boarding-house to her husband in the theatre. To the Bench : There was a light ia the passage just outside the door, and she did not light a candle. "When she awoke there was plenty of light in the room. [Mr. Pardy explained that the partitions did not go to tho top, and the light from the passage lighted several rooms.] Cross-examined: She had no idea what time it was when Bhe went to her husband to the theatre. Previous to being awakened by the prisoner, she had not heard any knocking at the door. She had Blept at Veith's the previous night in the same room. She was not at first frightened, as she thought it was her husband who was in the room, but when she thoroughly awoke she saw it was the prisoner, and she then cried out. She was cross-examined at some length, but without in any way shaking her testimony-in-chief. Ilenaro Kaupeke, husband of the prosecutrix, deposed that on Saturday night last ho went to the theatre at 8 o'clock, and soon after 9 o'clock his wife came to him and told him something about the prisoner, in consequence of which he came with her, and found a constable, whom they told of what had occurred. He had not seen the prisoner between 8 o'clock and tho tome his wife carao to him iu tho theatre, nor had he requested prisoner to awaken his wife ; but before he went he asked prisoner to accompany him, and when they got upstairs they were unable to open tho door of his room, and prisoner told him he might sleep on a sofa in another room, and witness said he would sleep there when he came back from the theatre. Both then came down stairs together, and witness went to the theatre. Prisoner had not been requested to go into his wife's room, and witne33 did not know that he was going there. Sis wife was crying when she came to him in the theatre. She was only partly dressed, and had no jacket on. Crossexamined. His reason for asking prisoner to accompany him to his room before he went to the theatre was, that ho found tho door fastened, and he was afraid if he used force he would break the door. He did not knock, but spoke to his wife, and she did not answer, and when he went back with prisoner, tho latter went into an adjoining room, and knocked at the partition while he knocked at the door, but when he found that she did not answer, he told prisoner "that will do." He did not tell prisoner he wanted the inocmoc (sleep), but perhaps prisoner thought that was what he wanted, and told him he could sleep on tho sofa. "Witness went up to get Bomo money to go to the theatre. Prisoner did not say anything about the woman being sick or dead, or having anything the matter with her, nor did he say anything about keys. He could not speak English well, but he understood some words. Hone to Hawiti, who was standing outside prisoner's boarding- ! house on Saturday evening, deposed to seeing tho prosecutrix coming out of the house. She i appeared as if she had been ill-used. She ws\s crying, and her clothes were disarranged. She went toward Queen-street, in the direction of the theatre. Constable Dodd also gave evidence. The prosecutrix and her husband complained to him of the assault committed on her in a boarding-house in Victor ia-street. A. Maori who was with them interpreted. She describad the man, and witness from the description took it to be the prisoner. The prosecutrix was excited, and had been crying. She pointed out tho boarding-house she referred to, and ho brought the woman and her hushand to tho police-station. The prisoner made no statcmeut to him. It was the Sergeant-Major who arrested the accused. Sergeant Major Mason deposed that the last witness brought complainant and her husband to the station on Saturday night, and from a statement made by , them he proceeded to the prisoner's residence, and charged him with this offence on complainant identifying him. He denied the charge, and made a long voluntary statement. He said complainant's husband had desired to go into the room aud could not, and had requested his assistance. After hearing the evidence, and without calling for a defence, the Bench dismissed the case, and the accused was discharged. City By-laws.—Two charges against Lawrence Tierney,—one for driving at times not specified in his licence, and another for leaving tho employment of Mr. F. Quick, —were withdrawn by consent of the Bench. Mr. «T. B. Kussell appeared for the informants, and Mr. Tyler for the defendant.