ASSAULT ALLEGED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26903, 15 October 1948, Page 8

ASSAULT ALLEGED

TROUBLE IN APARTMENT HOUSE

MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL An alleged midnight assault on two men in a bedroom of a city apartment house resulted in the appearance in the City Police Court yesterday of William John Keenan, a bricklayer, aged 60, who was charged with assaulting so as to cause bodily harm John Francis McNeil and Thomas John Henry Foote on September 28. The defendant, who pleaded not guilty, was committed by Mr J. D. Willis, S.M., to the next session of the Supreme Court at Dunedin for trial. Detective Sergeant Macdonald Brown conducted the prosecution, and the defendant was represented by Mf F. W McAlevey. Describing the injuries to the complainants on admission to hospital, Dr J. C. McNeur, orthopaedic registrar, said McNeil had cuts, abrasions and a fractured elbow. The injuries would be consistent with being caused by a heavy iron bar wrapped in a sack. Foote was suffering from abrasions, bruises and a fractured forearm bone. In his case, all the injuries could not have been causea’ by a man’s fist. The complainant McNeil, said in evidence that he occupied a room next the defendant’s on the top floor of a twostorey apartment house at 220 St. Andrew street. On September 27 he went to bed about 7.30 p.m., and later his friend, Foote, came in. Foote was upset because his father had died that day, so the witness told him to sleep with him for the night. The next thing he remembered was finding the light on. He saw the defendant standing over the bed waving something in a sack. "I was dazed. I held up my hands,” the witness continued. Swearing, the defendant began hitting him with the object as he tried to shield his face with the arms. His companion was also being attacked as he sat up in the bed, and was soon a “ mass of blood.” About a week before witness had learned that the defendant was receiving the old age benefit, besides working for wages. While witness was discussing this With an old man at the residence the defendant overheard them. Witness told the defendant that he would report him. to which the defendant replied: “I will murder you." He repeated this threat on another occasion when witness was forced to lock himself in his room. The defendant kicked on the door, threatening and swearing. An occupant of a room across the passageway from McNeil’s room, Allan McDonald Thomson, said he was wakened by the sound of snoring. About 0.30 a.m. the defendant came to his room, asking whether he had any objection to the defendant “ Pushing those two out. Witness assumed him to mean McNeil and Foote. He told him to “ carry on, although he had- no idea of the measures the defendant proposed to take. Soon afterwards he heard a noise, and on g°mg to McNeil’s room, saw McNeil and i oote with blood on their faces sitting up in bed. The defendant was there holding something that looked like a stick in a sack. Witness then went back to his r °Jean Margaret Andrews, a hoarder occupying a room on the ground floor said she Tiad overheard quarrels between the defendant and McNeil. The defendant used to complain about McNeil keeping him awake at night by talking and snoring. On the morning of September 28 the defendant told witness that he had fixed them last night,” adding that they were 44 snoring like a couple of pigs. Acting Detective K. G. Jefferies, relating interviews, said the defendant, when confronted with the suggestion that he had assaulted the complainants with an iron bar, had replied that he did not need a bar to ”cU an them up —he could do Other 'evidence about the relations between the defendant and McNeil was given by two other boarders, Doreen Mary Meredith and Peter Marshall. Evidence concerning the defendants earnings while employed by Domini n Industries was given by Gwendoline Theresa McMullen, ledger-keeper for Fletcher Holdings, Ltd., and the registrar of the Social Security ‘ Department at Dunedin C. V. Goddard, gave evidence about the defendant's receipt of age benefits.