ACCUSED NOT GUILTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 39, 16 February 1939, Page 5

ACCUSED NOT GUILTY

RANGATAUA CASE ENDS ALLEGED ISE OF .A KNIFE JURY’S VERDICT AFTER SECOND TRIAL A verdict of not guilty was returnPf i by a jury in the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday at the end o[ lhe second trial of John Ensaii Briggs, aged 19, labourer, of Ohakune, who was charged on three counts of assaulting David N. r. Garvan, at Rangataua, on October 29. The jury was absent just under two hours before delivering its verdict. His Honour, Mr. Justice Reed, presided. The Crown Prosecutor at Wanganui, Mr. N. R. Bain, appeared for the Crown, and Briggs was represented by Mr. J. Hussey. Wanganui. The jurors were: Messrs. Robert W. Orton ‘foreman*, Walter Mutineer, Melville A. W’inter. Olaf M. Larsen. Albert Foster, Donald Frost, Charles Overend, Colin Bellit, Arthur J. Chapman, James P. Coyle, Clarence F. Clark. and Raymond Mitchell. The indictment was one of three counts, the first charging the accused with wounding Garvan with intent to do grievous bodily harm, the second with assaulting Garvan and causing bodily harm, and lhe third with causing him actualy bodily harm in such circumstances that if death had been caused the accused would have been guilty of manslaughter. The case centred round a fight which occurred at Rangataua during a dance on October 29. It was alleged by the Crown that accused, after having had liqour, abused Garvan and that the two of them went to a vacant section and fought, and that Garvan had come out from the section to his mates, who were standing on the footpath, saying: “I’m not going back in there; I think he’s got a knife.” Accused denied all -dung that he had a knife. Medical evidence showed that Garvan had a .small incised wound in the upper right arm. This could be probed to a depth of an inch. He was also slightly wounded on the left forefinger and had a scratch on his neck. It was shown, and the fact stressed by the defence, that the vacant section on which the fight took place was one on which a building had been burnt down and there was rubbish on it, including broken beer bottles. The fight took place in the dark and witnesses for the Crown said that while they could see the two contestants but dimly they could hear bottles being kicked about as they scuffled.