GUILTY OF ASSAULT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24525, 6 February 1941, Page 9

GUILTY OF ASSAULT

VERDICT IN OAMARU CASE ACQUITTAL ON MAJOR COUNTS MEEHAN REMANDED FOR V SENTENCE; The-hearing of eight charges against William Meehan, ranging from attempted murder to assault, was concluded at the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon. the accused being found guilty on the assault charge only. The major charge was that the accused attempted to murder George Robert Edwards and Frederick Henry McAuley. the other charges alleging that the accused intended to commit cr committed actual bodily harm with a rifle upon either one or the other of the two men, and also that he committed assault with a rifle and fixed bayonet. The charges arose out of a disturbance in a hall in Oamaru on October 13 last, where a meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses was being held. Mr Justice Kennedy presided. Mr F. B. Adams prosecuted for the Crown, and the accused was represented by Mr C. S. Thomas, of Christchurch, and with him Mr J. E. Farrell, of Oamaru. George Herbert Christensen, a Jehovah’s Witness, said he attended the meeting in the Oddfellows’ Hall on October 13, He was assisting with the recording of the lecture by Judge Rutherford. About half an hcur after the meeting started, he heard a shot and looking out into the hall saw a commotion. He went out and saw McAuley lying on the floor. Cross-examined by Mr Thcmas. witness said two men came to him at the Lyric Hall earlier in the day and obtained some literature. He did not know whether cne of the men was the accused. „ , Did you say to the men that any young fellow who fought for his country to-day was a murderer? —No. David Jackman, a retired linesman, said he gave the accused some softnosed .303 cartridges about eight years ago. " Would Do It Again ” Constable A. D. Buchanan, of Oamaru, said he attended the meeting in plain clothes. The lecture had been in progress about half an hour when, following the sound of scuffling, a shot rang out and McAuley lunged forward on his face, crying out. Witness went outside and saw Edwards and Ridling holding Meehan down. The accused was excited and smelt of alcohol, but he was quite sober. Meehan said: “I know what I’m doing. They’re fifth columnists. That’s the way to get rid of fifth b— —s.” On the way to the police station the accused said he had lost his head, but would do it again. At the station he again stated: ," I would do it again. That is the way France and Belgium went under." Later the accused said he had lost his head, that the rifle went off by accident. and that he hoped he had not hurt anyone else. When the seniorsergeant came into the watchhouse Meehan greeted him with: “I’ve done things properly this time. I don’t think.” When charged with attempting to murder McAuley he stated: “That is not correct, sergeant; I did not know that man. The rifle went off accidentally in the struggle.” Senior Sergeant T. I, McGregor corroborated the evidence of the previous witness. No Evidence for Defence This copcluded the evidence for the Crown, and Mr Thomas intimated that no evidence would be called for the defence Mr Adams reviewed the evidence in detail, describing the accused’s act as dastardly and cowardly and'hot one that reflected credit on the great army with which he had fought in the last war. A “Yankee Spell-binder” Addressing the jury, Mr Thomas referred to the bewildering number of charges against the accused, an array which, he submitted, showed weakness on the part of the Crown. “ Before you can convict the accusga on the charge of attempted murder,” Mr Thomas said, “you have to find that he intended to kill. At the time of the occurrence, Jehovah's Witnesses were a notorious body, opposed to all organised religion, and they caused diversion in this country. The accused knew that in the hall this Judge Rutherford, this Yankee spell-binder was to speak and his lecture 'was, I submit, subversive and seditious. These Jehovah’s Witnesses go their own sweet way, whether their teaching results in the destruction of our Empire. We know what Fifth Columnists are and how they secured the fall of Norway. Holland, Belgium, and France, and if these Jehovah’s Witnesses are not Fifth Columnists, tell me what they qre? Most people prefer to call them traitors.” Mr Thomas reminded the jury that on October 13 Britain had lost her allies and the air blitz was on, and yet, the accused knew, a seditious meeting was being held. Counsel submitted that it was the accused's duty to go and stop it. Mr Thomas dealt in detail with the charges against the accused and the evidence of the Crown’s witnesses, submitting that intent had not been proved. He suggested that the story of the Crown witnesses did not reveal the whole truth, pointing out that it had been adrhitted by one of them that they had talked the case over and discussed the question of cross-examina-tion His Honor Sums Up His Honor, in summing up, said that the jury had to be the judge of the facts. The citizens of this country must obey its laws, and were entitled to the protection of those laws. They were not there to try Jehovah’s Witnesses for any alleged offence. The accused was on his trial, and the tiuestion was whether he had or had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt guilty of the charges brought against him. His Honor said that doctrines and views of which they must strongly disapprove were those opposed to the interests of the country. Mr Thomas had taken a view of the law in expressing what he said were the rights of the accused in going to the meeting. He would say at once that this view was not a correct one, and was based on an erroneous view of what the law really was. His Honor traversed the evidence at length and remarked that the body called Jehovah’s Witnesses was a body which was carrying on propaganda about this time. This method of carrying on propaganda was disapproved—perhaps that was too mild a word to use—was disapproved strongly by good citizens of the country. This organisation had shortly afterwards been termed a subversive body by the authorities. The accused, patriotic, high-minded, or otherwise, as he might be, had proceeded to the meeting with a rifle and a bayonet, a dangerous thing unless care was taken. Guilty on the Eighth Count The jury retired at 3.20 and returned at 4.20 with a verdict of guilty on the eighth count only—namely, that on or about October 13, at Oamaru, the accused did assault George Robert Edwards and Frederick McAuley. the said assault being committed by threatening them with a loaded rifle and fixed bayonet. The accused was remanded in custody for sentence.