YOUNG LAD IN COURT

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11935, 16 September 1924, Page 6

YOUNG LAD IN COURT

“A PRACTICAL JOKE.” ASSAULTING A GIRL. A young lml. whi7.se name was ordered to be suppressed, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on summons, charged with hating assaulted a girl, aged 18, on September 3rd. The - acting-chief-detective said that about ten o'clock on the night in question a young girl was going home along Austin street when the hoy began to follow her. He caught her up from behind, and then threw what might have been a sheet or a handkerchief over her head. The girl screamed, and the boy rani off. There had been no suggestion of indeoency, and it appeared to he a practical joke. The boy was later traced. However, such actions should not be allowed, and the lad Should be placed under some sort of restraint. Mr O. 0 Mnzengarh, who appeared for the lid. said that it was a handkerchief and not a sheet that had neen placed before the girl’s eyes. The hoy thought that he knew the girl, and when, after he had thrown the handkerchief over her eyes, he discovered lie had made a mistake, he made off. He had not been lying in wait for anyone; he just thought to play a practical ioke on one of his girl acquaintances. Tn his statement to the imlice he said ■' “I did not realise, the seriousness elf my action at the time.” The magistrate admitted the boy to probation for 12 months, with a condition that he did not go out after eight, o’clock at night.