Denial in stabbing case

Press, 24 June 1983, Page 21

Denial in stabbing case

A man who accused another of raping a woman friend wasstabbed in the chest outside a New Brighton tavern, the District Court was told during a depositions hearing yesterday. The defendant, Reihana Chase, aged 28, unemployed, has denied injuring Mr Allan Duncan George McKinley on April 16, with intent to injure him. Mr E. Bedo appears for the defendant and Sergeant W. P. Creasey is the prosecutor before Messrs E. W. Pyle and J. B. Graham, Justices of the Peace.

Mr McKinley told the Court that he had been with a group of people at the New Brighton Hotel when one of the party “indicated” Mr Chase. Mr McKinley

said he knew that a woman friend had complained of being raped by the defendant and that a rape trial in the High Court earlier in the year had resulted in the defendant’s acquittal. When spoken to by Mr McKinley, the defendant ran from the hotel. “I went after him and he turned around and hit me in the side. I thought he had punched me, but someone yelled out I had been stabbed,” Mr McKinley said.

He said he then looked down and saw blood coming from the side of his chest.

Mr McKinley said he chased the defendant, who was still carrying a knife, through the New Brighton Mall and into a shop.

Mr John Alan Jackson, a shop assistant, said he had seen Mr McKinley and the defendant shortly after the alleged stabbing. He said the two men had been fighting in the shop in which he worked, and they had fallen over and smashed a cabinet. Mr McKinley held a knife over the defendant, kicked and abused him, and accused him of raping his (Mr McKinley’s) woman friend Mr Jackson said. The accusation was shouted “quite a few times.” The witness said that Mr McKinley had a bloodstain on his shirt which covered the area from his armpit to his waist. The defendant did not appear to be injured, he said.

The hearing will continue