TAXI DRIVER ASSAULTED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22860, 15 October 1937, Page 16

TAXI DRIVER ASSAULTED

MAN UNABLE TO PAY FARE TERM QF ? PRISON IMPOSED • ' [B7 TELEGRAPH—PREB3 ASSOCIATION] CHRIBTCHURCH, Thursday "The i/Court has neither patience nor. leniency for dastardly assaults of this kind,"- stated Mr. E. 0. Lewey, S.M., to Mason Samuel Branch in the PoKoe Court to-day. Branch, a; single man, aged 21, pleaded guilty to a'charge of assaulting Horace Reginald Stokes, taxidriver. /He was sentenced to two months', imprisonment with hard labour. Branch claimed that he had been drinking prior to the incident, and' was not responsible for his actions. "This .is quite outside the ordinary run of'assaults," said Detective-Ser-geant Holmes. Stokes, said the detective, was on duty early on the, morning of August 23. At 5 a.m. he received a call and picked up .Branch, who wanted to go to New Brighton. Branch got in the back seat and conversed on various subjects. He asked Stokes to drive into a blind street, and complainant was just about to stop the car when he received a violent blow on the back of the neck. Stokes was stunned for the time being, and when ho recovered he saw that Branch was out of the car and making for a plantation. Some time later suspicion fell on Branch, and when he was interviewed he admitted, the assault. His ..excuse was that he had been drinking, and that he did not have the money to pay the fare. He was receiving £1 a week sustenance and £1 a week for farm work. He had been before the Court previously for theft. "This was a cowardly assault, and it might have had serious consequences," concluded the detectivesergeant. "It caused quite a lot of concern among taxi-drivers who have to ply their calling through the night."