MANGERE ASSAULT

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 37, 6 May 1927, Page 1

MANGERE ASSAULT

VERDICT OF GUILTY robbery with VIOLENCE SENTENCE DEFERRED "I bent dpwn to tie my bootlace and , kicked 'me in the face. When I "ame o again," stated the accused, Koy Morrison, "X was on the other side of had complainant's suitjjse with you,” remarked Mr. Justice Herdmn. , Th* complainant was John Boys, an under-sized man of foreign extraction, and the two accused, Roy Morrison and Thomas Nacey, were charged in the Supreme Court with robbing him with violence of a suitcase containing four tins of opium valued at £3B. Mr S. L. Paterson prosecuted, and Mr A. M. Goulding, instructed by the Crown, appeared for both accused. Complainant, who is at present serving a term of imprisonment for being found In possession of the opium, stated that he was formerly employed as a cook on the intercolonial steamer Mar•ma. He said that, according- to an arrangement with the accused Nacey, who had formerly been a shipmate with him, he promised to procure some opium, Nacey having a prospective buyer in view. Witness got the opium and proceeded with the two accused to a small beach on the other side of the Manure Bridge. They were walking along the beach, he said when Morrison pointed out a house, where he said the prospective buyer lived. As he looked in the direction indicated he received a blow on the head which knocked him down. "While he was on the ground Morrison grabbed the suitcase containing the opium and ran away. Witness was calling out for help, and some men arrived and •ecured the accused.

Reginald George Allen and Alexander Allen, motor engineers residing at M&agve, who came to the assistance of Boys, gave evidence as to the assault. They stated that they saw Morrison run away with a suitcase in his hand and hide among some flaxbushes on the other side of a wall bounding a Chinese garden. Morrison, in evidence, said that he was tying his bootlace when he received a kick on the jaw, which immediately rendered him unconscious. He d.d not remember another thing until he came to, over the other side of the fence.

Mr. Paterson: I see. Boys kicked you tnd the suitcase over the garden wall. The Jury found both accused guilty. Sentence was deferred until Monday.