ALLEGED ASSAULT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8182, 25 July 1912, Page 1

ALLEGED ASSAULT

MIDNIGHT AUCKLAND INCIDENT. PRESS 1 ASSOCIATION. .■ . . ' AUCKLAND, July 24. 'lf I am tried and found guilty, as God is my judge, I am an innocent man. I'am willing to-admit what I have done, but I have not done a Violent crime of that sort. It is not my nature or my disposition to strike any man a blow like that.” So protested Paul Eugene Serin in the Police Court this morning. He was charged that at Epsom on the night of June 25th ho assaulted A. J. Roberts, billiard saloonkeeper, so as to cause him actual bodily harm. Alfred James Roberts, • who keeps a book shop and billiard saloon opposite •the tram barn at Epsom, stated that about 11.25 p.m. on the date in question he locked up and left the premises ,to go to his cottage at the back. Ho first went to a convenience, and as he was leaving that ho noticed out of the comer of his eyes a dark object by the side of the outbuilding. Ho turned his head to see what it was, when he was struck on the side of the head with a piece of wood two by two and about three feet long. The man who had the wood took a step towards the witness, and the latter fell on his hands and ■ knees. Witness rose and called out, and the man, who-was the accused, made for a wall of the section, witness following. Accused carried the stick over the wall. It was a moonlight night, but there was a hazy cloud ■ over the moon. Witness had a good look at his assailant. Accused lived about twenty minutes’ walk away from witness's; place. The police came in response to witness’s call, but the assailant got away. Witness after wards' picked Serin out from amongst r number of men .(more than a dozen, he bought), and identified him as the assai! ant. .

To ac'cnsod: He was positively surr Serin was the man who struck him. Accused: What identification have yo” 'Ot? Witness: Your face I —it is a remark ble face. Accused: How? Witness: Your eyes, your nose, youair, your moustache! Then, it was that Serin protested hi •nnocence in words given above. Seri sked what reason he would have fo oing such a thing. Witness answered, "Bobbery, I sup pose." Thereupon prisoner said that he himself had been, similarly assaulted recently in Newton, a man striking him on the nose and breaking it. Ho could not identify his assailant. Serin was committed for trial.