Accidents and Offences.

Otago Witness, Issue 1522, 8 January 1881, Page 22

Accidents and Offences.

A singular assault case was heard at the Police Court on the 31st. James O'Brien, of Kensington, appeared in custody, on remand, to answer a charge of having assaulted, in such a manner as to endanger its life, an infant five months old — his daughter's child. The prisoner said that he did not remember anything of the occurrence, but if he had struck the child he was exceedingly sorry for having done so. Elizabeth Gardner deposed that she had' seen the prisoner strike the child on the face with his open hand, and from the evidence of Dr Lightbourne it appeared that the infant suffered severely from a braise on the face, though it had since recovered and was now out of danger. The arresting constable said that when he went to the prisoner's house he found the^ prisoner, who pleaded for mercy, in a state of intoxication. O'Brien, at the conclusion of the evidence, begged the Court to deal leniently with him. He had, he said, already been imprisoned for seven days, and he promised to sign the pledge if released. The Bench, after a Bhort consultation, released the prisoner upon his entering into a recognisance in the sum of Lls, and finding a surety for the sum of L 2 10s, to keep the peace for three months. Two cases of larceny were heard at the City Police- Court last week, the circumstances of which are remarkable. It appears that on the 29th inst. a man named Richard Gibbon visited the house of an elderly man named John Mouat, from whom he stole the oniy pair of blankets the man possessed. The old man, left without blankets, Boon felt the effects of the cold, and by Wednesday was almost prostrated. On that morning a friend of bis, Daniel Tennant, called to see him, and, finding him ill, volunteered to fetch some medicine, which he obtained by breaking in a chemist's ! shop window and taking it out. The first culprit was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for stealing the blankets, and the other got 14 days for stealing the medicine. John Christie, alias Lee, whose name is well known in connection with horse stealing cases, in Otago, was brought up at the Police Court on Monday charged with the theft of a bay horse, value L 25, the property of Edward Tobias George, hotelkeeper, Naseby, such theft having been committed about October 28th,' 1880. The evidence was that Mr George turned his horse out on the run at Naseby on October 25th, and missed it 10 days afterwards. On October 29 th Christie rode up to Olive's Hotel, at Outram, with the horse in his possession, jand some conversation took place between him and Mr Olive about the sale of it. On 30th October Detective Henderson arrested Christie in Dunedin on another charge, and he was then riding the horse, which he said was his own. The accused reserved his defence, and was committed for trial. • Fatal Fire at Blenheim. Blenheim, January 3rd. The New Year was nshered in by a terrible occurrence. About 12 30 on Saturday morning a house occupied by a bricklayer named Daike caught fire and was soon burnt to the ground. When the fire was discovered Daike was aroused, and escaped in a blanket. The charred remains of Mrs Daike were found under the kitchen floor. An inquest was held to-day, when the principal evidence was given by Daike, who stated that he and his wife were intoxicated when they went to bed. When awoke by the noise of the fire in the back room' be got up, took his wife to the front door, and told her to open the door and run out, as the fire was increasing. He did not open it, as she had plenty of time herself, but returned to the bedroom to throw out what he could get, and believing his wife had escaped, he got through the. window. He did not know his wife was missing until the house was so far burnt that nothing could be saved. Other evidence went to show that the Daikes lived on good terms. The Jury returned a verdict that there was no evidence to show how the fire originated.