MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 200, 13 May 1918, Page 7

MAGISTRATE'S COURT

A eliort sitting of the Magistrate's Court was held on Saturday morning, Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., bein?- on the bench. Cecilia Parkinson, who .was convicted of drunkenness, there being two previous convictions against hov. was fined A in dofault fourteen days'■ imprisonment,, and was ordered to pay 17s. 6d. medical uxponses, with the option of serving a further foutccii days in gaol. I'or insobriety two first offenders weru caoh lined 10s., in default twenty-four hours' imprisonment, and a third, who failed to appear, had his bail of 20s. estreated. A soldier named David Alexander Walker was charged with assaulting Sergeant Charles W. Ixipdell, a Dolicn sergeant, while the latter was in the execution of his duty, nlso with wilfully damaging a pair of'trousers, valued at 325. Gd., the property of the Now Zealand Government, lt was stated in ovidoncß that the defendant, who was intoxicated, was in His Majesty's Theatre whero ho lvas causing a disturbance. Sergeant Lopdell was requested to Temovo the man, and tho sergeant asked the soldier to keep quiet or to leave the theatre. His mates warned tho sereeant not to lay hands on the man, nnd ho then asked them to take the man out. Aβ the eorgoant turned round he received a blow, and on looking round he saw the defendant coming at him; the ; sorgeant got in tho first blow, and floored tho man. Eventually the soldior was removed to tho police station, and en routo ho damaged a policeman's trousers. The sergeant in his ovidence paid a tribute to the vory good behaviour of tho visiting eoldiors. The truculent soldier received what Inspector Mnrsack described as "all that wae coming to him." Tho caso was not pressed against tho man, and the Magistrate convioted and discharged him for assaulting the police officer, and ordered him to refund tho cost of tho pair of trousers, 325. Gd., and thereafter that hu should be handed over to tho military authorities.