CHARGE OF ASSAULT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26775, 19 May 1948, Page 7

CHARGE OF ASSAULT

FINGER ALLEGEDLY BITTEN

MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL

P.A. AUCKLAND, May 18. An allegation that a man haa bitten an acting detective was made in the Police Court when John Tai Raymond, aged 39, a labourer and seaman, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting Henry Ward Austin on April 27. While on night patrol on April 27. he was informed that a house was being broken into in the Great North road, said the acting detective. He went to investigate and when he reached the house he saw the accused being held on the footpath by Constable Cuthbert and another man, Matanga Mataira, Constable Cuthbert was arresting the accused for assault. The accused was taken to the Police Station. While approaching the search room, he started to resist violently. “ Raymond bit the little finger of my left hand,” said witness. “He was then forced into the search room, with my little finger still in his mouth.” He had been forced to strike Raymond several blows on the side of the head with a torch he was holding in his right hand, and other police officers had to overpower the accused before he would desist, added witness. Ten stab wounds, four of which had penetrated the flesh, had been treated on Austin’s little finger, said Dr Jamieson, of the Auckland Hospital. The wounds were consistent with his having been severely bitten. Raymond was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.