DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 77, 28 September 1933, Page 20

DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR

MAN FINED £1

Charged with striking Alfred James May in the Hutt Park on August 12, Jack Loehoro appeared before Mr. J. 8. Barton, S.M., at the Petone Court yesterday. The incident occurred at a meeting at which whippets were raced. May being the secretary of a whippet racing club. The defence was that Lochore struck May when the latter made threatening movements towards him. Lochore was convicted and fined £1, and was allowed one month in [which to pay the fine.

Mr. C. R. Barrett appeared for the defendant, and Senior-Sergeant .C. E, Roach prosecuted.

Senior-Sergeant Roach said the circumstances of tho case were that May was. secretary of a whippet racing club. In the afternoon of August 13 a, meeting was . in■.progress^ and the secretary and another man were havirigLan argument when the defendant "put his spoke, in." He was told to be quiet and not interfere, but he struck May on the jaw and felled him' to the ground.

In giving evidence, May said ho was having an argument with a man named Coxon, : and during the argument the defendant was advising Coxon to hit him. (witness). There was no visible injury as the result of the blow, but it was painful. In reply to questions by. Mr. 'Barrett, witness said that Lochore was a member of an; opposition racing club, and in 1931 there was unpleasantness between Loehoro and he over the price of a bottle of .hair tonic which ho was going to sell to Lochore. Thomas Marshall McGhee said he saw Lochore give the blow, and May fall to the ground. He asked Lochore to ; leave the ground, which he did.

:• Constable J. Scarry said he interviewed the defendant, who admitted striking May, but said he had done so in self-defence.

Mr.. Barrett said the case was one of a man who had asked for a "crack," and had got the worst of it, and then complained to the police. Lochore, Coxon, and some others had went to Hutt Park to have a look at the opposition club's races. May had ordered them off the ground, and had accused them of stopping others from racing. Coxon said to May: "Don't talk rot." Lochore considered he was included In May's references to stopping racing, and said the statement was a lie. May then made a threatening movement to Lochore, who had to defend himself, and got in a blow. Lochore corroborated tho statement made by Mr. Barrett. Gordon Forsyth, a resident of Lower Hutt, said he saw May take up an aggressive manner and rush up to Lochore, who1 stepped back, and when May crowded in on him he hit him. Richard Coxon, a bootmaker, • of Wellington, and organiser of the Port Nicholson Whippet Club, said May accused him of stopping Wellington dogs coming out to the meeting. Witness then demanded to see the man who accused him of that. Lochore commented that that was fair enough, whereupon May used bad language. He did not see Lochore rush up to May. Florence Mabel Howard said Lochore and May were arguing about dogs, and May was using bad language. May put up his hands to hit Loehoro, and Lochore hit hinu

Mr. Barton said that the defendant did not deny the assault, but said the other man'was the aggressor, and the blow^was struck in self-defence. He was not altogether satisfied on that point. Both men were ready to quarrel, and bad language had been used by May. Lochofe had chipped in when he was not personally addressed. It was not proved that May had rushed up to the defendant; one witness, Mr. Coxon, had denied it. A fine of £1 was imposed on Lochore.