WRONGFUL ARREST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 222, 19 September 1936, Page 9

WRONGFUL ARREST

• CIVILIAN GETS DAMAGES THREE POLICEMEN SUED TOTAL OF £3OO AWARDED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Received Sept. 18, 9.36 p.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 18. An action for damages against three members of the police who havebeen sued for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and assault, which ended to-day in favour of the plaintiff, Robert Percy Mariners, who was awarded £lOO damages against each defendant, a total of £3OO, has caused State-wide interest. Manners, who is a journeyman printer, gave evidence that while going to his home late at night in the Redfern district, he saw three men bundling another man into a car. He received a scare and began to run away, but was himself pursued, caught and very roughly handled by two of the three men, who happened to be Detective J. H. Silcock, Constable G. Mulfay, and Constable G. Roach. Manners stated that he was punched, bullied and finally taken by car to the police station, where he established a case of mistaken identity and was released. The police were apparently looking for a man who snatched a lady’s handbag. Each of the defendants denied the asault. The Chief Justice, Sir Frederick Jordan, said that the police had no right to arrest a citizen unless they were prepared to charge him with an offence immediately. The treatment of Manners consituted a serious assault.