PROSECUTION FAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23280, 24 February 1939, Page 12

PROSECUTION FAILS

INTOXICATION CHARGE CONDITION DUE TO ILLNESS "His condition when I examined him half an hour after his arrest was due 99 per cent to illness and 1 per cent to alcohol," said Dr. T. Harold Pettit in the Police Court yesterday, concerning Gordon Douglas Purdie, -plasterer, aged 20 (Mr. T. Henry), who denied a charge of being intoxicated in Qharge of a ! motor-car in Kitchener Street" on January 28. Evidence was given that accused was seen trying to start his car in Kitchener Street at about 5.45 p.m. on January 28. He got out of the car and cot into the back seat. An Automobile Association inspector sent a constable to the seen?, and when accused was asked to get out of the car he staggered and i'ell over the low wall of Albert Park opposite the Arts Hall. He said he had been feeling ill all day and had consumed three half-handles of beer.

Two police officers who saw accused at the police station expressed the view that he wast intoxicated and unfit to drive. Dr. Pettit said that accused was desperately ill, suffering from gastric influenza. He tvas weak and scarcely able to stand, which would be responsible for his staggering gait. He was not under the influence of alcohol, but he was not fit to be driving a car. "In view of the doctor's evidence, it would be dangerous to convict accused," said Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., in dismissing the charge.