RIFLE SHOT FIRED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23994, 18 June 1941, Page 6

RIFLE SHOT FIRED

MEMBER OF PARTY WOUNDED PROBATION FOR YOUTH [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION"] WELLINGTON, Tuesday Sentence was passed by Mr. Justice Johnston in the Supreme Court on-a young man who fired a rifle in the direction of a shooting party without intending to hit any of them, but whose bullet struck one. He was Bernard Dooling, cycle mechanic, aged 20, and he had pleaded guilty in Masterton to a charge of causing actual bodily harm so that if death had resulted he would have been guilty of manslaughter.

Mr. S. V. Gooding, of Masterton, who appeared for the prisoner, said his client had frankly admitted what had happened. He and a friend were shooting near a river bank and some bullets ricochetted dangerously close to them. Dooling was seized with a foolish impulse to warn off the persons responsible for the shots and fired toward them. The bullet that was taken from the arm of a member of the other party was flattened, and that supported the theory that it had ricochetted and was consistent with the prisoner's statement that he had not fired at the party. Remarking that the prisoner was lucky not to have had to answer a more serious charge, His Honor said

that while the prisoner's character was good, his conduct in this instance had been criminally stupid. The prisoner was admitted to probation for 12 months, was prohibited from possessing a firearm, and was ordered to pay £2 Is costs.