CITY POLICE COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 2

CITY POLICE COURT

Friday; January 4 (Before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) Assault Admitted “ I am inclined to believe your story,” the magistrate said when Alan Raymond Putane, a labourer, aged 36. pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting James Macken and explained file circumstances which culminated in tire incident. The magistrate adjourned the charge for six months on the conditions that Putane should be of good behaviour and should pay the cost of the ambulance which was' called to take Maeken to hospital.— Senior Sergeant D. Vaughan said that late on the afternoon of December 26 a constable saw Putane chasing a man from Maclaggan street across into Broadway. The pursuer caught him there, and the man lay down on the pavement, whereupon the accused picked him up and knocked him down. The constable intervened, arrested the accused and summoned an ambulance. The victim of the assault had struck his head on the pavement and was in hospital until January 2. He had refused to give the police any information.—Putane said that the assault was the sequel to an incident in a bar some time earlier. He (Putane) had picked up a wallet and placed it on the bar counter. The other man took it away and brought it back, and when it was claimed, the owner alleged that £4 had been taken from it. The other man then disappeared. “ That is why I hit him when I saw him again,” Putane said. “ From what we know of the other man, the story could be true,” Senior Sergeant Vaughan said. In reply to the magistrate, he repeated that " the other man ” would not tell the police anything. There was nothing previously known against the accused.—” It is unsatisfactory that the other man is not here,” the magistrate said. He warned Putane that if his conduct were not staisfactory. he would be brought before the court on the assault charge. This incident could easily have resulted in a much more serious charge. Theft from Chinese “ This man lives with disreputable people and apparently cannot keep out of trouble,” said Chief Detective T. Y. Hall, when James William Leon Lewis, aged 30, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing two suits, one overcoat, a suitcase, two packets of tobacco and twelve packets of cigarettes, valued at £42 12s 6d, the property of Stan Yee Jeng Keng. The chief detective said that the complainant lived with a white woman with whom the accused was friendly, and whom he visited when the Chinese was away. He went to the house on December 21. \(’hen it was empty, and took the clothing and other articles. When the woman taxed him with the theft on the following morning, he admitted it and returned everything except the tobacco and cigarettes. Lewis had been in trouble frequently, and was released from prison in September.— The accused said he had been drinking fairly heavily on the day of the offence.— “ You are getting a lengthy list,” said the magistrate, who sentenced him to 14 days' imprisonment. Court Flouted William Joseph Dunn, a labourer, aged 57. was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for not observing the terms of his release on probation. The probation Officer (Mr E. F. Mosley) said that Dunn was before the court on December 17 on a complaint that he had been annoying a woman. He was then released on specific conditions, but there had been further complaints.—“ You were convicted and ordered to come up for sentence jf called upon,” the magistrate said. “ You were given a clear warning, and you gave a definite undertaking to keep away from thsee premises. You have seen fit to flout the condition upon which you were released, and you are going to gaol.” Procuring Liquor Daniel David Miller Andrews was fined £1 10s, in default three days’ imprisonment, for procuring liquor during the currency of a prohibition order.