MOTORIST CHARGED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 280, 26 November 1936, Page 8

MOTORIST CHARGED

ALLEGED RECKLESS DRIVING SEQUEL TO PORIRUA ACCIDENT WRESTLING MANAGER BEFORE COURT [ Ter Press Association. ] WELLINGTON, Nov. 25. I A charge of recklessly driving a motor-car at Porirua on November 6 and thereby causing bodily injury to James Leacock, hospital attendant, was preferred against Edward I Miller, wrestling manager, 50, at the Magistrate’s Court before Mr Luxford. Leacock said he went off duty at 5 p.m. and proceeded homeward on a bicycle. He remembered reaching a level crossing and waiting for a train to pass. After it had passed he mounted his machine, but remembered nothing more till he woke up in the public hospital. Witness identified his uniform and the machine. He said that before that evening there were no spokes broken in the wheels and no rents in his clothes. Evidence was given as to the wounds on Leacock when he was admitted to hospital. Another attendant at Porirua Mental Hospital said he met Leacock at a railway crossing, and they set out in a northerly direction. Leacock was close to him on the outside. Just over a hundred yards from the crossing a car coming from behind struck Leacock and threw him on to witness, dragged Leacock ten or twelve yards and then threw him off. Witness was knocked off, also, to his hands ana knees on the grass. The car accelerated and did not stop. Witness was definite it did not stop. He got its number. He did not hear it approaching, nor did he hear any warning device sounded. | John Joseph McGinn, another Poriirua attendant, who was also proceed- '• ing home on a bicycle, said that a car came very close to him before he (reached the railway crossing ana i nearly ran him off the road. It I cleared him by about a foot, forcing i him on to the grass. It. seemed to (swing in in front of him. It was being ! driven in a very erratic manner. He came on Leacock and Harris around i the bend. Leacock was lying injured. I The car was a large blue modern sedan, and the only car that passed i him. Nurse’s Evidence | Mavis Currie, a nurse, said that she was engaged as a nurse by accused about November 4 when he was at the Empire Hotel. They left aoout 4 p.m. on November 6 for Auckland. The accused was driving and she was sitting in the front seat. Witness was questioned as to whether anything happened after they passed Porirua, but she repeatedly replied “Nothing'” The first stop was at (Paekakariki, where they left the car j in a garage and booked in at an hotel because of the lateness of the hour. They reached Levin in time for breakfast next day. There, she said, she was questioned and cross-ques-tioned by detectives for hours, and she did not know what she said. To a reiteration of this DetectiveSergeant Revell remarked: “You might be questioned for hours and hours to-day yet.” said that the detectives promised if she signed a statement then lhe fact that she stayed at Papkakariki with accused would not come out. The Magistrate: You signed on that statement ? Witness: Yes, and on the statement j that I would be helping Miller. They told me Miller would probably get a term if taken to Court and they were out to help him. In the course of further questions, , Detective-Sergeant Revell said there ' war no intention of attacking the wit- . ness’ reputation. “We are not inter- . ested in that end.” When driven back to Wellington in ( the police car that night, witness said she was in such a state of exhaustion that she tried to jump out and was J stopped by Detective Ritchie. Later * witness said she was very nervous and ‘ had been worrying all the week, and several times tried to do away with herself. Her husband had been very careful of her, but “he is not going to stop me when I get. away from here, and it will be Detective Ritchie’s fault.” I At the conclusion of Mrs. Currie’s 1 evidence Detective-Sergeant Revell addressing the magistrate, said: “I don't propose to go any further. If I had my way I'd withdraw all this evidence. I don't ask your Worship to x accept any of it on behalf of the prosecution, anyhow.” r Before the evidence could be read . over, witness staggered back and col- j lapsed on the floor. She was carried f from the Courtroom. William Hebden, a garage pro- f jprietor at Paekakariki, said that on the evening of November 6 accused called at the garage before six o’clock. f The left front mudguard was dented 1 and its side buckled. There was “something sticky” on the handle, which reminded him of paraffin oil. He wiped it off. Peter Joseph McArdle, licensee of the Paekakariki Hotel, said that the two arrived at the hotel before six and booked in. Accused was quite sober but appeared to be nervous. Detective Ritchie said that on the afternoon of November 7 he interviewed Miller at Levin in company with Detective McLennan. Miller admitted ownership of the car and that he had driven to Paekakariki. He said he had passed several cyclists but ■ could not remember where. He denied hitting a cyclist and said if he did he knew nothing about it. Whilst at Paekakariki Hotel he said Mrs. Currie had mentioned something about his going close to a cyclist but she had said nothing prior to this. Plea of Guilty. At this stage Mr. Willis, who appeared for Miller, interposed saying ■ that it was the intention of his client ■ to plead guilty. The police case was then closed. When the reading over of Mrs. Currie’s evidence was raised, Detec-tive-Sergeant Revell applied to have the evidence withdrawn but Mr. Willis asked that it should be left in. Accused was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. 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