GIRL BRUTALLY BEATEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 687, 12 June 1929, Page 1

GIRL BRUTALLY BEATEN

AGGRESSOR LEAPS FROM CUPBOARD SEAMAN’S ACTION LEADS TO GAOL

MER blouse smothered with blood and her face marked in several places a tearful young woman called at the Newton Police Station yesterday. She complained that she had been assaulted and said that, when she was visiting a friend’s house, a man suddenly appeared out of a cupboard and attacked her.

rpHIS morning at the Police Court, Guy Carney, a seaman aged 26, was charged with assaulting a young woman in Newtc-n yesterday. He pleaded not guilty and Sub-Inspector McCarthy told the court the story of what he believed to have occurred.

“This man was very friendly with a young woman but she decided to break with him,” he said. “Yesterday she was induced by a note to visit a house where she conversed with a woman she believed to he her friend. The man was concealed In a cupboard and it is hard to believe that the whole affair was not prearranged.” TWICE ATTACKED According to the victim of the assault, she had been twice attacked by Carney yesterday. At seven o’clock in the morning he had visited the room, where she was sleeping with another girl. He had asked her whether she wanted a ring for her baby and she had said that she did not. He had then asked her if she did not wish to have anything more to do with him. “I answered ‘No,’ and he struck me as I lay in bed,” continued witness. “He also struck my friend, who tried to ward off the blows he was directing at me. I called out to my grandmother, and Carney ran out of the house. Later In the morning she had received a - note which induced her to visit a friend's house in Newton. The woman had led her to admit that she had been at the races, although she had denied it to Carney. “With that,” continued witness, “Carney appeared out of a cupboard. He struck me several times and kicked me in the back.” Witness said that she had tried to break away hut that one of the two women then in the room had dragged her back. She had picked up a chair to ward off Carney’s blows as he had repeatedly knocked her down on a couch. Her clothing was torn. Carney was not the father of her child. Carney: Why did you break our friendship? Witness: Because you used to thrash me and would not work. You are sorry for yourself because my mother won’t keep you any longer. A second girl; who had been in the bedroom when Carney had made his early morning visit, corroborated the evidence already heard regarding that episode. “I tried to ward off the blows aimed at my friend and Carney struck me on the hand,” she said. Witness knew Carney by sight. GIRL’S NOSE BLED

Admitting that she had written the : note which had lured the assaulted girl to her home, a married woman explained that she wanted to prove something connected with her own domestic affairs. She had concealed Carney in the cupboard. In the middle of the interview Carney had come out and started to argue with the girl. “He struck her twice, hut not on the head,” continued the witness.

“The girl picked up a chair and hit him on the head with it. A girl friend and I tried to stop her.” It had been when Carney had pushed her on the couch that the girl’s nose had started to bleed. Carney had appeared after the girl had admitted being at the races, drunk, with another man. When the girl came to the house her face was swollen,” concluded witness. “I don’t know anything about that and it is none of my business.”

According to Senior-Sergeant Fiannigan, of the Newton police, it was

shortly before noon when complainant i had arrived at the station. There was I no doubt that she had been seriously j assaulted. “Her blouse was smoth- > ered in blood and her eyes and nose I were swollen. She was also crying.’’ j The senior-sergeant said that the ; house where the assault had taken place had previously come under the i notice of the police. “WHEN I WAS IN GAOL' Carney, describing himself as a seaman, admitted that it was three years since he had been on a ship. He had been casually working on shore. “In January last just before I came out of gaol ’’ he said. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: What were you in gaol for? “Assault,” answered Carney, and continued with his story. He said that the complainant had written to him and asked him to come and stop with her. He had accepted the "mutation. Accused denied that he had struck the girl at the house; -he had only taken the chair from her. “I did hit her when I saw her in the morning,” he admitted. The' Sub-Inspector: Bo you think it was manly to hide In the cupboard and try to trap this unfortunate girl? Carney; If I had not been In the cupboard she would have denied everything.

Carney made an endeavour to besmirch the girl’s character, but was checked by both the magistrate and the sub-inspector. “It is the assault we are dealing with,” said the magistrate. “You were willing to let the girl keep you. but you are only too keen to blacken her name now,” was the sub-inspector's contribution. It was mentioned that Carney had four convictions last year. “He has been in and out for a long time,” added the magistrate. Sentence of two months’ imprisonment was imposed. On a further charge of breaking the terms of nis probation order the man was convicted and discharged.