STREET AFFRAY

Southland Times, Issue 22043, 16 June 1933, Page 11

STREET AFFRAY

FATAL BLOW STRUCK. CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER. (Per United Press Association.) Dunedin, June 15. , Pleading not guilty to a charge that on June 3 he unlawfully killed Peter Smith, thereby committing manslaughter, Arthur John Thomas Wilkinson was committed for trial. Bail was granted in one surety of £2OO and two of £lOO each. The inquest proceedings were taken concurrently with the hearing of the charge. Medical evidence was that the injuries were done with a closed fist, death occurring as a result of an injury to the head through either striking a footpath or a corner of a building. A post mortem disclosed intercranial haemorrhage, resulting from a fracture of the • skull.

Arthur Keddell, a motor mechanic, said that on leaving the Crown Hotel at six o’clock someone pushed himself and his companion and went up to another man, remarking: “Did you call a ?” The man replied “No.” With that the first man struck the other a blow and the man fell into the road flat on his back, striking his head. The assailant ran away. Witness later saw Wilkinson, who said: “What would you have done if a man had called your old father-in-law a ?” Detective Jenvey said that on June 5 the accused came to the detective office and said: “I’m the man who hit Smith on Saturday. I have come to give myself up. I didn’t know until this morning he was dead, so I knocked off work at lunch time and came right here.”