AN ASSAULT CASE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10410, 25 July 1912, Page 6

AN ASSAULT CASE.

AN AUOLKAND CASE. Per Press Association. Auckland, July 24. “If I am: tried and found guilty, as God Is my Judge lam an innocent man. lam willing to admit what £ have done, but 1 have not done a violent crime of that sort, rit is not my nature or my disposition to strike any man a blow like that. ” So protested Paul Eugene Serim in the Police Court this morning, in the. course of a case in which he was charged that at Epsom, on the night of the 25th Jane, be assaulted A. J. Roberts, billiard saloon keeper, so as to cause him actual : bodily harm.

The chief witness against tbe prisoner was Alfred James Roberts, who keeps a book ! shop and billiard saloon opposite tbe team barn at Epsom. He stated that about 11.25 p.m. on tbe date In question he looked up and left tbe premises to go to his cottage at tbe back. He first went to the convenience, and as he was leaving that he noticed out of tbe corner of his eye a dark object by the side of the outbuilding. He turned his head to see what it was, when he was struck on tbe side of*the head by a piece of wood, two by two, and about three feet long. The man who had the wood took a step towards witness, as the; latter fell on his hands r and knees. Witness rose, and called out and the man, who was tbe accused, made for the wall of the section, witness following. Accused carried tbe etiflk over the wall. Tbe night was a moonlight' night, but there was a hazy cloud over the moon. Witness bad a good look at bis assailant. Accused lived . about twenty minutes' walk away from witness’s place. The police came in response to witness’s call, bnt his assailant got away. Witness afterwards picked Berlin out from amongst [a number nf men (more than a dozen, he thought), and identified him as his assailant. To the accused ? He was positively sore Serim was the man who struck him. * “What identification have yon got?”—“Your face. Jt Is a remarkable face.” “How?”—“Your eyes, your nose, your hair and moustache.” Then it was that (Serim protested bis innocence in the words given above. Continuing, Scrim asked what reason he would have for doing snob a thing, and witness continued, “Robbery, I suppose. ” Thereupon prisoner said that he himself had :beeu T similarly assaulted recently in : Newton by a man who struck him on the hose, breaking it, and he could not identify his assailant, though be Was a stronger man than Roberts and better able to stand snob a blow. He could give no reason why he was hit. “Now, Mr Roberts,” he went ou, “don’t yon honestly and truthfully think you have made a mistake?” “No.” “Well, you have, because I can prove where 1 was, which 1 will do.”

Dr. Smith stated that the wound on Roberts’ bead was about two inches’ long and bled very profusely. Had it been lower down on the head it would have been very dangerous, Serim pleaded not guilty; and was committed for trial.