SUPREME COURT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19250, 16 February 1937, Page 4

SUPREME COURT

GISBORNE SITTING TWO SERIOUS CASES TRUE BILLS RETURNED Two serious eases were brought for trial at the quarterly session of the Supreme Court, which opened in Gisborne this morning, both cases concerning serious charges of a sexual nature. His Honour, Mr. Justice Ostler, presided.

Addressing the grand jury, His Honour said that only two cases would come before them, and neither should present much difficulty, and the evidence should disclose a prima facie case to put the accused on trial.

The first case, His Honour added, was one in which Thomas Matenga was charged with indecent assault on a girl 14 years of age at Kaituke on December 28. The facts were very simple and very short. According to the evidence in the lower court, the girl was sent by her grandmother on horseback on an errand which on her return took her past tho accused’s house. The accused was alleged to have decoyed her by a false message, and pulled (her off her horse. The girl struggled, and managed to get free, or the accused might have faced a more serious charge.

The second case was one in which two men .were concerned on three counts. George Waititi was charged with an attempted grave assault on a single woman, and Mahuilca Allison was similarly charged in connection with a married woman, while both were jointly charged with an attempted attack on a single woman. Tho facts here were also simple and short. The evidence in the lower court showed that the two women -were at a dance at Raukokore. They went outside, and the two accused standing thero made au improper suggestion, which the women declined. The two accused then seized the women, trying to drag them across the road. The married woman got free, and the accused who was holding her then went to the assistance of the other, trying to drag tho woman acrohs the road. It was a severe struggle, but she broke free and got back to the hall.

The grand jury comprised : —Leslie Miles, foreman, Athol A. Carrington, Eric 0. Upton, Joseph E. Shepherd, James Jolley, Keith Johnstone, John K. Nasmith, Frank Aston, Francis G. Robbie, James A. Meban, Francis C. Leggatt, Francis N. Hornibrook, John B. Broadhurst, Harold F. Wise, James Williams, Leslie W. Cooper, Eric A. Muis, Ralph Dobson, James C. Hardy, Eric J. Rosie, Douglas J. G. Michie, Henry B. Drummond, Walter David Morley. True bills were returned in both cases.

The following jurors were summoned : John F. Algie, Frederick G. Bacon, Daniel B. Barry, Richard E. Bellerby, Charles A. D. Blackburn, Albert H. Budgen. Reginald G. Burgess, Frank X. Burr, Robert Campbell, Roy H. D. Chalmers, Stanley G. Clare, 'August J. Corbett, Kenneth R. S. Crarer, John B. Davies, Moss De Costa, Harold G. Downey, Ernest C. Ellery, Kenneth R, B. Ellmers, Frederick G. Fahy, Jess Fuller, James T. Gordon, Reginald A. Gray, Reginald F. Green, George P. Hamilton, Robert Hanna, Horace Thomas Harris, James B. Hollier, William Kennedy, Harold Kennedy, John T. Langford, Noel Francis Lewis, James Linton, Frank Little, Herbert E. Lord, Geoffrey T. McConnell, Michael McMahon, Desmond 0. Phelps, Charles S. Flatten, Albert E. Pyatt, Dudley 0. Redstone, Thomas Rhodes, John J. Ryan, William Riddell, Arthur Skillen, Lawrence A. Sullivan, Oliver Thodey, John Turner, Herbert Tyler, David Watt- and Arthur Young.