SALESMAN SENT ON TRIAL

Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1932, Page 2

SALESMAN SENT ON TRIAL

ALLEGED ASSAULT ON WOMAN. TRIED TO SELL APPAREL. . Charged with indecently assaulting a married woman at New Plymouth om December 5,. John George Coulson, a canvasser, pleaded not guilty before Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., yesterday, and was committed for trial to the Supreme Court in February. He was re-admitted to bail in his own bond of £lOO, plus one surety of. £lOO, or two of £5O each. .. . . The woman in question said that about 2 p.m., while her husband was at work and she was home alone with her children (one aged two years and the other 11 months), Coulson knocked at the back door and asked the small boy where his mother was. When she arrived at the door he was standing on the step with a suitcase.

He said he was travelling with women’s wear and men’s clothing and that he could sell them more cheaply than.most travellers. She told him she did not want anything that day, but he asked her what she had paid for the cotton stockings she was wearing. She told him they cost her 3s. lid., whereupon he said she had been “had,” and that he could sell her the same sort for 2s. lid. He offered to show her a pair, and said that if she did not mind he would put his bag on the kitchen table. She could not remember whether she said he could come in or not, but he walked into the kitchen and, placing his bag on the table, opened it and showed her some bloomers. She was then sitting on a stool at the end of the table with tire baby in her arms. She admitted they were “very nice,” and he told her that they were 7s. lid. in the shops, but that §he could have them for 3s. lid. She said she did not want either these or the silk stockings that he displayed next, and he returned them to the bag. Afterwards he showed her a pair of silk stockings for 2s. lid., and, bending or kneeling in front of her, he lifted her dress and put his hand on the top of her stocking to feel the quality. She told him there was no need, as she did not want the stockings, and he put them back in his bag. Leaving the stool,-phe sat on a chair in the comer, and he showed her a pair of fugi silk bloomers, saying they were nice against the skin. She did not reply, and he observed that the little girl would like to get down on to the floor. “She is quite all right where she is, thanks,” said the witness. She next stood up beside the fire, and he took a pair of bloomers and measured them against her. Then he asked her questions about her expected confinement. In reply to another question, she said she had everything for the. bedroom. He took up a singlet, but she told him she had some like that, and on being further questioned said she had paid 3s. lid. for them. Coulson said he would let her have one for 2s. lid., though they were 4s. lid. in the shops. “You don’t wear any singlets?” he said. “I suppose it is cooler this weather?” On her telling him that she did, he asked her what sort, and coming over to her, he pulled the top of her frock aside to look. She tried to stop him, with the result that her singlet was torn where it was pinned to her frock. She could not say which of them tore the singlet. She mentioned to her small boy that his father would soon be home, whereupon Coulson asked her if her husband was working that day. She said he was, and told him the place, and*he put his things in his bag. He told het that if< she wanted anything else she should let him know,, because he could sell them to her much more cheaply, but he asked her not to say anything. Before leaving Coulson said something about satin-lined singlets and drew his Anger across her chest, saying “They,just come to about there.”

He was in the kitchen about half an hour. She had not called out or made a noise because she knew the neighbour on one side was out and she thought her neighbour on the other side was out. She had heard about these peculiar cases and did not like to make much fuss. After Coulson left she heard her boy call to a neighbour, who answered him. She washed his face and went into the front room to put on a cardigan. Through the window she saw Coulson drive away with another man in a blue-grey sedan. Then she went next door and told her neighbour what had occurred. She was very upset. She had never seen Coulson before.

To Mr. Bennett (who appeared for Coulson): The stool she sat on was Ift. 3in. high; the baby was in her arms. She thought she had said: “These stockings you have are silk, but there is no silk in mine.” She denied suggesting he should test her stockings. He had tested their texture. She and her neighbour made no attempt to find Coulson. When she ; returned home from next door her husband was cutting the hedge. There had not been a struggle. Coulson had not. used bad language or made indecent suggestions.

A neighbour. of the previous witness deposed regarding the visits of Coulson to the locality at that time and gave an account of what the woman told her. When she arrived at witness’, place she was crying, and said a traveller had “pulled her about.” She was very upset and frightened, and trembled all over. She did not want to go home until her husband arrived home; she expected him any minute.

Detective P. Kearney (who conducted the case for the police) gave evidence that about 5.30 p.m. on the day following the alleged offence he saw Coulson in the bar of the Red House Hotel. Questioned outside the hotel, he admitted being in the suburb concerned on the previous afternoon. On the charge being mentioned, he recalled calling on the woman. At the police station he made and signed a statement. In this he said he canvassed drapery from door to door. His wife was in Australia. He described his visit. He said that the woman had commented on the quality of the stockings compared with hers. She had asked him to feel the quality of the stocking she was wearing. She put her leg put for him to feel the stocking. Afterwards she told him the stocking he was selling would “do her,” and asked him to call once' a fortnight.' He denied doing any of the other things she had complained of.