A TRIVIAL CHARGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14132, 6 August 1909, Page 7

A TRIVIAL CHARGE.

COSTLEY HOME INCIDENT.

At the Police Court yesterday afternoon, before Messrs. D. Flynn and C. H. Furness,J.P.'s, Thomas McCaffrey, an aged wardsman at the Costley Home, was called upon to answer a charge of having assaults ed an old man named. Walter Henry Lowell, who was an inmate of the institution on the date of the alleged assault (July 11). / Lowell, it. will ;be remembered, was wanted as a witness in the recent case in which the manager of the Costley Home was charged . with assaulting an aged inmate :by forcing him into a bath against his will, but when the case came on for hearing Lowell failed to materialise. He was, however, soon afterwards picked up in an outhouse by the police in a etate of helplessness, and after being cleansed was drafted back to the Costley Home. ; Since the date of McCaffrey's alleged assault, Lowell has again left, the institution. The " complainant stated that on going into one of the bathrooms on the morning in question he was met with the remark from the defendant, "Why don't you go into your own bathroom for hot water - :" Defendant then punched him on each jaw, caught him. by the throat, and knocked his head against the soap box. McCaffrey admitted having had cause to make a complaint to Lowell, but positively denied having assaulted him, and demonstrated hie inability to do so by illustrating to the Bench the extent of his infirmity. .. . _ The charge was dismissed, and the Bench expressed the opinion that such a trivial charge should not have been allowed to waste the time of the Court.