TRESPASS CASE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 61, 1 August 1947, Page 5

TRESPASS CASE

WHAKATANE HOSPITAL GROUNDS YOUNG MAORI IN COURT A young Maori, Johnson Savage, who was a member of the reecnt J-Force draft, faced the court last Wednesday in answer to a series of charges involving common assult, trespass and alleged rape. Messrs. L. H. Brown and S. S. Shapley, J.P.s, were on the bench, and Mr B. S. Barry defended.

The case involved an incident which allegedly occurred on the Whakatane Hospital grounds, when accused with his brother visited the institution and called on two Maori members of the nursing staff, who later alleged the assult. After hearing, the evidence of Dr. Dawson, Matron Runciman, and two complainants, the Bench announced that the Court was not satisfied that a prima facae case had been established and dismissed the more serious charges. On the charge of trespass, Mr Barry stressed the fact that accused had a lawful excuse for being there in that he had called to see one of the girls concerned with regard to the sum of £5 owed him by his brother, and more than that had been admitted by her to the Nurses’ sitting room. The Bench decided that the accused’s excuse that he went to see a girl who was a minor, about money owed by her brother, was not a lawful one as he had previously been warned by the police to keep away from the hospital quarters. For this offence he was convicted and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment in the Whakatane gaol, a similar penalty to that imposed on his companion at a previous sitting.