ASSAULT BY CONSTABLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18519, 2 October 1923, Page 6

ASSAULT BY CONSTABLE

/ —-—.■" '".'■*»' •■• ':,/:'.■ ''-''''"■->'■•'" AFFRAY AT MIDNIGHT. INCIDENT IN ; GREYMOUTH. FBI TELEGRAPHOWN CORRESPONDENT. J ;' GREYiiOUTH, Monday. Wide ■ interest was shown in an assault charge brought by a local resident, James Bernard Heffernan, against ': a member of the Greymouth police ' force,, ; Constable. Leslie Marshall, in the Magistrate's Court before Mr. , Meldrura, S.M., to-day.' ~.;•: The plaintiff alleged, : thjat ; the constable;way;iid him at i midnight on September la, near his : houso yin \Murrayi : Street, and thrashed him severely, in- ! flicting painful injuries }. to'". his face, and i head. Defendant pleaded not':guilty.; ■' (- 1 Heff ernan : said he left his friends at j midnight at ■ the corner of -Murray and ! Tainui ; Streets. When he ; had proceeded a v short distance Marshall ■ overtook him. Marshall asked him if he was " as good a man as he was at the pie cart on Saturday night?" . Heffernan said, he was not looking for fight. "If you 'are not, I am," said Marshall. Marshall called witness "a dirty Irish pig,*' and hit him on tho head. He must have hit witness 20 or 30 times. Then he said, " Have you had i enough?" > and ; walked, away. Cullen and Hambclton came on the scene and Heffernan told . them Marshall had assaulted him and called on them to bear witness to the ; fact that he was badly cut : about ;v tho head and bleeding. < He had a black eye and his nose j was not! right yet. ' ■.-.' ■;: '- . , ■y-j';^-f:> Marshall's 1 defence was a, denial of the assault. He' said ernan provoked him for a long time, using abusive language to him. On the Saturday .precedinga the assault he had warned the men at tho pie cart to moderate , their language., but did not address: his remarks specifically to Heffernan.

The magistrate, in /giving judgment, said there had been a • great'deal: oil evidence concerning« the ; relations of plantiff with the police, but all the Court 2 wis concerned, with -was whether the assault was ' comitted. Evidently : there had been bad blood plaintiff ■:': and'-: the police. .After reviewing the evidence the magistrate said he had to hold that an assault had been committed, ■ but he' -had no sympathy ; for Heffernan. ;/ A nominal fine of £1 : was inflicted, but in view of the fact that * plaintiff had brought a great deal of the trouble onliimself each party '.was:, ordered to pay his ■■ \ o*rii : ■costs.,