Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

INTOXICATION CHARGE FAILS ABRUPTLY

Wrong Man Identified As

Car-Driver

SEQUEL TO RETURN TRIP

FROM PICNIC

A charge of driving while intoxicated had an abrupt and unusual finish in the Magistrates’ Court, Lower Hutt, yesterday without counsel, Mr. A. i. Young, calling evidence in defence of. making submissions. When the prosecution conducted by Sergeant J. WMcHolm was concluded, _ Mr. Young asked defendant, Richard Eric Hollow, printer, Wellington, to stand. Mr. Young then pointed out to the magistrate that one witness had identified another man in court who was not even at the scene of the accident as the driver of the car’ other witnesses had supported this witness. The man thus identified had been sitting next to him in Court, while defendant had been seated on the other side of this man. “That is the answer to the charge,” said Mr. Young.

Mr. A. M. Gouldiug, S.M., dismissed the charge. Defendant was then charged with dangerous driving and fined £2, with costs 10/-. The licence he had obtained subsequent to the accident was suspended for four months. He was fined £1 with costs for not carrying a warrant of fitness and £1 with costs for driving without a licence. Phillip K. Morris, motor driver, Wellington, said that he was driving behind a car from Silverstream toward 'Wellington at 6 p.m. on January 17. This car narrowly escaped hitting a railway bus and again, near the bridge, a car. Half-way through the Taita Gorge it struck the bank, went along it for some 40 yards and then overturned on its incorrect side of the road, the car then facing toward Silverstream. There were five in the car, all intoxicated. The man sitting alongside counsel was the driver.

Evidence About Jar. Leonard Gordon Hamilton, van driver, Lower Hutt, who came on the scene of the accident, said he saw two or three men busy putting a sack containing a jar over the fence. There were five in the car; four definitely intoxicated and the other not so bad. William Herbert Nicols, company manager, Wellington, said that one of the men was not drank. One man came up to him, his face covered in blood and said, “I’m not drank.” In his opinion this man was very drunk and was pointed out to him as being the driver. He thought this was the man sitting alongside counsel ; it was difficult to say as all the party wffre then in sports clothes. Harold William Tolan. J.P., Wellington, said he witnessed the jar being put over the bank; one man sprawled over the fence in helping to do this. He reported the occurrence to the Lower Hutt police. Constable J. McConachy produced defendant’s statement in which he set out that he was the driver of the car which had been forced off the road by another car. He hnd been to the Government Printing Office picnic at Maidstone Park, where he had one beer at 1.30 p.m. Constable R. Griffith said he found a two-gallon jar in the Hutt River at the scene of the accident. It had the cork out and was full of water, but smelt strongly of beer. Mr. Young then asked defendant to stand up. The man who had been sitting not alongside Mr. Young but next to the man sitting alongside him, then stood up. Defendant’s Answer. Mr. Young said this was defendant’s answer to the charge. This man sitting alongside him was not at the scene of the accident at all, but one witness had identified him as the driver and another said he thought it was him. Another had said that he thought both, men sitting alongside him (counsel) were in the party. Dismissing the intoxication charge, the magistrate said that, though in a case of the kind grave suspicion fell on the driver, confirmation of a nature which would satisfy the Court beyond reasonable doubt was required that the person charged was tlie driver at the time. In view of the absence of identification, it was too serious a charge on which to convict. One witness admitted that one of the party was not drunk, and another witness confirmed this. He was bound to give defendant the benefit of the doubt when there was lack of ability to satisfy the Court completely that he was in charge of the car. There was a grave suspicion, but he could not convict on suspicion alone. Defendant then gave evidence on his own behalf in regard.to the other charges. He said that the jar of beer had not been disposed of by any of his party but by others. Convicting defendant of dangerous driving, the magistrate said that lie accepted the evidence of Morris completely in this regard. There was no doubt that from the time he passed the bus till the accident defendant was driving dangerously and too fast. It might be that he had had some liquor, and that this was the secret of Ute whole affair. Defendant said that he had had only one drink, but he doubted this. Because the breach was so bad he would suspend his licence for four months.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19390317.2.108

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 147, 17 March 1939, Page 11

Word count
Tapeke kupu
855

INTOXICATION CHARGE FAILS ABRUPTLY Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 147, 17 March 1939, Page 11

INTOXICATION CHARGE FAILS ABRUPTLY Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 147, 17 March 1939, Page 11

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert