CITY POLICE COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22398, 20 October 1934, Page 2

CITY POLICE COURT

Friday, October 19. (Before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) DRUNKENNESS. Charged with drunkenness, a first offender was convicted and discharged. MOTORISTS CHARGED. Kenneth Haig O’Neill, an unlicensed motor driver, was fined ss, with costs (10s). Nevil Wallis was fined 10s, with costs (10s), for failing to keep his lorry to the left of the centre line of a road. Stanley Mulqueeu, who was stated by the police to have collided with another car as he was crossing the intersection of the Octagon and Princes street, was charged With having failed to give way to traffic approaching from his right. — The defendant, for whom Mr C. J. L. White appeared, pleaded not guilty.— After hearing evidence by the driver of the other car and for the defence, the magistrate said he was unable to find the defendant guilty, and dismissed the information. CHIMNEY ON FIRE. James Donaldson was fined ss, with costs (10s), for allowing the chimney of his house to catch fire. A REMAND GRANTED. William M’Pherson Moore was charged with being intoxicated whilst in charge of a motor car.—On the application of Mr C. J. L. White, who appeared for him, the defendant was remanded until October 24, bail being allowed in his own recognisance of £25. A YOUTH IN TROUBLE. A youth named James Hay, for whom Mr L. R. Simpson appeared, pleaded guilty to having obscenely exposed himself in a public place. —Mr Simpson told the court that since the accused’s original appearance ho had been examined by a doctor, who suggested that ha should undergo a course of treatment. -The magistrate said there was no doubt that the case was entirely one for medical treatment. The accused would be admitted to probation for two years, a special condition being that during that period he remains in an institution approved of by the probation officer. A CHARGE DISMISSED. James Murray, aged 57 years, who was represented by Mr C. J. L. White, pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted suicide. —Dr Walden Fitzgerald said that on September 29 he visited the defendant and found him to be acting very violently. He was in a semi-con-scious condition, his face was very blue and congested, and there was a mark around his neck which was consistent with some restriction such ns a cord or a bootlace having been placed around it. The defendant’s wife handed witness a bootlace with a noose on it and a pyjama cord, but it was not at all likely that these articles could be used in connection with physical exercises.Dr Gumming, a house surgeon at Dunedin Hospital, said that when the defendant was admitted to the institution he was conscious, but in a state of extreme mental confusion, and he resisted violently all attempts at physical examination. Next morning, however, he was quite reasonable, and he told witness that he had been practising tying fancy knots in his bedroom, bis waking up In the Hospital being the next thing he remembered. He later told witness that he had been doing physical exercises to strengthen his neck.—Mr White submitted that there was no evidence to show that the defendant’s condition was duo to other than an accident. —The magistrate agreed that there was insufficient evidence to justify ft conviction, and dismissed the charge. THREATENING BEHAVIOUR. Ralph Martin was charged with being in possession of an unregistered firearm and with procuring a firearm without first having obtained a permit to do so. He was further charged with having behaved in a threatening manner in a public place.—Senior Sergeant MacLcan explained that the charge arose out of a complaint received by the police some time ago. The defendant, who married man separated from his wi.c, met a girl and commenced to keep company with her, pretending he was single. He took her to a house lavishly furnished, which he pretended belonged to him, but it later transpired that most ot the furniture had been procured on time payment. Later, the girl found out that he tvas married and broke the friendship, but the accused continued to pester her, and finally, on June 21, produced a ievolver and told her that she would look nice with a bullet in her head. Ho was later interviewed by the police, whom he told that he had thrown the revolver away, but a search of his house revealed the weapon and a quantity of ammunition, further inquiries disclosing that it was not registered, and that he had not obtained a permit to procure it—Evidence along the lines of the senior sergeant’s statement was tendered by tne girl in question. —Sergeant M’Entee produced a statement signed by the accused in which the latter admitted knowing the girl, but denied ever having threatened her with a revolver.—On the first two charges the defendant was convict ea and discharged, and on the third he was convicted and ordered to pay witnesses’ expenses (11s 4d) and court costs (13s). A SERIES OF THEFTS. Richard Vorner Neville appeared for sentence, having previously pleaded guilty to receiving ,at Mercer on September 14 the sum of £lO from Beatrice Gilchrist Coultas in terms requiring him to account for it to William Thomas Dobbie, and fraudulently omitting to do so, thereby committing theft. Neville was similarly charged in respe:t of the following persons:—Archibald M’Nicol, at Clarendon, £10; Harry Edward Swaffield. at Papatoetoe, £25; Anne Katherine Prondlock, at Hamilton, £10; Vera Rosamond French, at Waihi, £2; Matilda Miller, at Auckland, £10: Emily Stentiford Breda, of AnckJjmd, £3O; Alice Maria Don, at Waitati, £25; Janies Herbert Grant, at Dunedin, £5. — Chief Detective Young said that the accused had been sentenced in the Supreme Court that morning on a major charge similar to those on which he was n,ow appearing.—ln the circumstances a conviction was entered on each charge.