LAW' REPORTS SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2617, 12 November 1915, Page 9

LAW' REPORTS

SUPREME COURT

CRIMINAL SESSIONS OBSCENE LANGUAGE CHARGE FAILS Ulie Supreme Court criminal sessions were continued yesterday, before Mr. Justice Chapman. Mr. V. R. Meredith. prosecuted. The case was continued in wihich Joseph Kenny was charged with having used obscene language at No. 247 Tinakori Road, on July 16. Mr. E. G. Jellicoe appeared for the accused, and contended that the uncorroborated evidence of what a constable heard, without seeing accused, could not be sufficient to warrant a conviction. Dealing with tho subject of language, Mr. Jellicoe admitted that the language of the stable yard, the golf course, or the military camp was not the,'language of society's drawing-room; lie was not trying to convey that some of the language of the society drawing-room would not be tolerated in the stable'yard. The accused was a man of good character, for he had .been a policeman, and, like all good policemen, had "blossomed" into a licensed victualler. He wae no "slacker" for he hadi sent his -test to Gallipoli, and had volunteered himself. In summing up, His Honour said that according to the law a nuin was no more entitlea to throw his dirty language through the window of his house than to throw any other dirty thing. A verdiot of nol/ guilty was' re!turned. AN UNUSUAL OAS®. .A well-dressed man named Andrew Julius .Finlay, the travelling representative of a largo American' business concern, answered! to his bail on a charge of having committed an indecent assault on a boy. He pleaded not guilty, and was represented by Mr. T. M. Wilford. The court was cleared during the hearing of tho case, and His Honour mad 6 an order forbidding publication of the evidence. Aiter a lengthy hearing the jury retired for about 20 minutes, and returned with a verdict of not guilty. Accused was accordingly discharged.