WRONGFUL ARREST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19124, 19 September 1936, Page 5

WRONGFUL ARREST

MAN TREATED ROUGHLY DAMAGES CLAIM UPHELD SYDNEY, Sept.-48: '■ An action for damages against threo members of the police who were sued for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and assault ended to-day. in favour of the plaintiff, Robert Percy Manners, who was awarded £ICO damages on each count, a total of £3OO. The case caused Statewide interest... .Manners, who is a journeyman printer, gave evidence that, while gcing to his home late at night in the R*diern district, he saw three men bundling another man into a car. He received a scare and began to run.away, but was himself pursued, caught and very roughly handled by two of the three men, who happened to be Detective J. H. Silcock, Constable G. Murray, and Constable G, Roach. Manners stated he was punched and bullied and finally taken by car to the police station, where he established that it was a case of mistaken identity and was released. The police were apparently looking for a man who had snatched a lady's*handbag. Each of the defendants denied the assault. The Chief Justice, Sir Frederick Jordan, said the police had no right to arrest a citizen unless they were prepared to charge him with the offence immediately. The treatment of Manners constituted a serious assault.