ATTACK IN STREET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23058, 8 June 1938, Page 17

ATTACK IN STREET

WOMAN KNOCKED DOWN PRISON FOR ASSAILANT [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Tuesday A term of imprisonment without the option of a fine was imposed on Leslie Thomas O'Reilly, a plumber, aged 24, by Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M. O'Reilly was charged with assaulting a young woman in Wellington Street, and pleaded guilty. Sub-Inspector D. McLean said accused arrived from Taumarunui on the day .of the assault and the young woman was a complete stranger to him. At 8.50 p.m. on Saturday the young woman was walking home along Aro Street. Accused called out to her, but she walked on and# turned into another street. Accused then came up, put his arm roughly round her waist, and knocked her down, falling on top of her. She struggled and cried out, and her brother and another man who came along saw them, and caught accused. They held him until the police arrived. Counsel said accused had never been in any sort of trouble before. Accused met some other men in the morning and was drinking with them at an hotel, leaving about 3 p.m. He could remember nothing of what happened after that. When he arrived ho had £6 in his possession, and when arrested about 12s 6d. Evidence was given to the effect that accused showed signs of liquor. The constable who arrested him said he looked seedy and shaky, but he could not tell how much was due to his being held and chased, and how much to liquor. _ The magistrate said that this sort of thing in the public streets of. any town in this country could onl.-f be regarded as so serious as to warrant imprisonment. Accused was sentenced to two months in gaol.