ASSAULT IN BAR-ROOM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19321, 7 May 1926, Page 14

ASSAULT IN BAR-ROOM.

LEG BROKEN IN FALL. ASSAILANT FINED £ls. The outcome of a scuffle in the bar-room of an Onehunga hotel was the appearance in the Supreme Court yesterday of Griffith Jones, who pleaded guilty to assaulting H. R. Nelson, on February 27, but not guilty to assaulting Nelson so as t<# causa him actual bodily harm. Mr. Meredith, for the Crown, said he was prepared to accept the plea. There was no doubt that the assault had been committed, said Mr. Moody, who appeared for the accused, but there were certain extenuating factors. Nelson's leg had been broken, but this happened as Nelson fell, and not as the direct result of the assault. In reply to His Honor, Mr. Meredith said it was not suggested that Jones intended to maim the man. Nelson's leg had evidently been caught in some obstruct tion as he fell. Mr. Moody said he understood that a civil action was pending for the recovery of hospital expenses, loss of wages and general damages. Jones was a inarriMj man with four children. This trouble was evidently the outcome of too muf'd drinking, and ho thought that the ends of justice might be met by the infliction of a fine rather than by the imposition of a term of imprisonment. His Honor adopted the course suggested, and fined Jones £ls, in default three months' imprisonment. A month was allowed in which to pay. His Honor expressed the hope that the proceedings would be a lesson to Jones as far as his future conduct was concerned.