PECULIAR CHARGE

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17411, 25 May 1928, Page 6

PECULIAR CHARGE

OF DEMANDING MONEY. POSSESSION OF IRON PIPE. THE CASE DISMISSED. Charged with being an idle and disorderly person in that he was found with insufficient means of support, and armed with a piece of iron piping, Joseph Wilson, aged 31, of Hamilton, appeared before Messrs R. T. Reid and A. Mcßae, J.’sP., in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court this morning. Defendant pleaded not guilty and elected to be dealt-with summarily. Norman John Murray, plasterer, of Thackeray Street, said he was accosted by accused in London Street. He (accused) demanded £5, saying that he had had no food for some time. When refused he pulled out an iron pipe and made as if to hit witness over the head. Witness invited accused to accompany -him to his boardinghouse, and he did so. For accused Mr W. J. King put it to witness whether it was not an extraordinary thing that he allowed accused to accompany him back to his house, walking behind him with the iron pipe. Witness told Senior-Sergt. Sxveeney that accused ran away before the arrival of the police. Alice Shaw, of 26 Thackeray Street., deposed that she went outside the house and found her husband and accused talking. She was told accused possessed a pipe, and she attempted to take it away from him. Accused said he did not want to see the police. As she told him to wait he jumped over the fence, but fell. He picked himself up and ran on towards the Lake. Murray was frightened of accused, said witness, .and she thought it was because of this that lie brought accused to the house. In answer to Mr King witness said she sent her little girl to the police in order to avoid trouble. When she asked about the iron pipe Wilson told her he was using it for a patent,, bhe said accused had told her husband he had recently been in hospital. Extraordinary Circumstances. Counsel said that. Murray’s was the only evidence concerning the charge. The circumstances were most extraordinary. Accused was respectful and courteous, and was invited in to tea bv Mrs Shaw. It was absurd to suggest he was idle and disorderly. He submitted there was no case to Cross-examined by Mr King. Wilson said he had been working for nine months, and he had a job to go to. Defendant denied t,he charge -of threatening Murray. The case was dismissed.