ASSAULTED A CONSTABLE

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 224, 21 September 1928, Page 5

ASSAULTED A CONSTABLE

HYSTERICAL WOMAN'S ACT. "UNIFORM MUST BE RESPECTED." ROLE OF A PEACEMAKER.

"The uniform of a constable must be respected by the community. We are not going to have it insulted by anybody," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court this morning, in commenting upon a charge preferred against Mrs. Susan Muldoon, of 140, Newton Road, of assaulting a constable who had visited her boardinghouse. Police evidence was given that a constable in uniform had been called into 140, Newton Road, because of an argument between defendant aiid the cook, Minnie Cowin. Defendant was hysterical, and made attempts to strike the cook. The constable intervened to prevent the ass'ault, and defendant ordered him out of the house. He did not go. She deliberately spat in his face, and said: "That is what I think of you." Susan Muldoon, in the witness box, said she had been in a bad state of health, and had taken some brandy for an attack of influenza. Mr. Hunt, S.M.: Oh, you had drink, had you? That was the cause of it. Counsel for defendant submitted the offence was not deliberate, and was not the thing an English woman would do. Mr. Hunt: She's an Irish woman. Sub-Inspector McCarthy: The constable was a peacemaker, and there was no cause for the assault. Mr. Hunt: Certainly not. The uniform must be respected. Defendant was convicted and fined £3.