"HE HURT MY DOG"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

"HE HURT MY DOG"

Woman Farmer's Fier ; on Motorist Costs Her

"A VERY, good, very wise verdict," commented J A, Mr. Justice Charles at Lewes Assizes when a jury • I awarded £175 damages against a 26-year-old woman farmer in favour of a motorist she attacked. "It is a pity she was not a man. A man would probably have got a hiding that would have done him good," he remarked.

EARLY in the proceedings, Mr. Justice Charles ordered the woman, Miss Patricia Mather, of Northover Farm, Ashurst, Sussex, from the Court for giggling. She was sitting by a fire in the hotel opposite the Court when the jury's verdict was told to her. "This means ruin. I can never find £175 " she declared. "I shall have to go bankrupt and give up my iarm. It represents my life's workShe was neatly dressed in a brown coat and skirt, an embroidered blouse nnd veiled hat, instead of the rming breeches and open-necked shirt she wore when she attacked the motorist. Fighting to keep back her tears she went on: "I thoroughly lost my temper. I knew I would have to pay, but 1 did not reckon so much. "My Duty" "The motorist should have defended himself more, and he would not lusve been hurt as he was. "His attitude is that he should never strike a woman. If 1 were a man and a woman attacked me as 1 attacked nun, 1 would certainly hit her. "A man is entitled to defend himself, or, at least, hold a woman s hands down." , ~ And the motorist, Charles Alan Matthews, sales superintendent, ot Brighton, commenced: , , , "Miss Mather must think what she likes about a man striking a woman. 1 would never do it. It would bo a terrible thing. With my Army training in athletics I could easily have defended myself, or I could have run away—l am a good runner —but I stayed there. "It was my duty as a motorist to bring the case. I did not know Miss

got hold of his neck and tried to throttle him, pushing hor thumb and finger in his windpipe as iiard as she ■' could. Stones Thrown 5: "She seemed to want to kill him. After ten minutes the two men pulled her away. "She then made another dash at Matthews, and threw stones at him. Ho got in his car and she hurled herself through the window on him. He moved out of her way and went to telephone the police. "While ho was away she threw hit property from the car, and then put- 1 her foot through the windscreen. When a police office arrived she said, 'He M hurt my dog and I hurt him.' " Mr. Pensotti said an X-ray examina* tion revealed a fractured bone in Mr. Matthew's neck. He was ordered a .1 month's rest, and lost £25 in earnings, ? his total expenses including that beinc' I £39 18s. t -v Matthews went into the witness box to give his description of the assault. $ "Had it been a man I should have J retaliated in no uncertain fashion," he f declared. Mr. Neve: I admit Miss Mather did < strike you. After the shock of the first blow you could have got away?— ; Assuming that I could run faster than I she could. "I stood my ground because I did not 1 want to leave my car,*" he declared. '. ! Jury's Prompt Verdict «j Addressing the jury, Mr. Neve com* mented that Miss Mather behaved in a fashion which the jury might think wa» outrageous. It was an act of crazy folly in a nt, of mad rage. In his summing-up, Mr. Justice Charles referred to the fact that Mia

Mather and I shall probably never see her again." Giggling Denied In Court, while Mr. C. J. T. Pensotti was opening the case for Mr. Matthews, Mr. Justice Charles interposed and said sternly to Miss Mather and another woman sitting behind counsel: "You two women leave the Court at once. 1 will not have you sitting giggling there. If this is pjroved it is a very serious case.'' Later, Mr. Eric Neve, defending, told the Judge Miss Mather denied she was laughing. Mr. Justice Charles: She was, and if she says she was not she tells an untruth. Don't say that again. I saw her with my own eyes. I am not in tho habit of sending people out of Court who are quite demure. She was giggling and laughing with the other woman. Mr. Neve: 1 am simply putting forward what 1 was instructed, Mr. Justice Charles: Then you were instructed untruly. Blow On Nose Mr. Pensotti, continuing, related that Matthew's car ran into a dog, and he stopped, at first thinking he had killed the dog. The animal, however, got up and was walking about. Two men came on the scene, one of whom said his sister owned the dog> and Matthews gave tho man his card. Just as ho was about to drive away Miss Mather, in riding costume, came up and said, "You swine." Then she struck Matthews on flio nose with her fist. "She looked very savago and rained blows on Matthews in her towering, fiendish rage," declared Mr. Pensotti. "She was grinding her teeth and slashing out at him."She clawed his neck, face, and one of Jiis eyes seriously. Then she got him on the ground.

Mather called Matthews "a siviue." "That is why 1 say we are trying the case not of a lady but of a vulgar , foul-mouthed woman," he said. "That is what she is." 4. "One would almost think she ought ; to be submitted to some expert to see whether a personso ill-balanced g is fit to be out of n lunatic asylum. "In all my experience on the Beach—--10 years now —this is one of the inost extraordinary stories I have ever heard. "It is solemnly put before you that • there is some provocation which would reduce the damages because, in. circumstances which she knew nothing about, « her dog happened to be bumped by » oar.'"

The jury returned their verdict after an absence of ten minutes. )