A SERIOUS CHARGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1565, 22 September 1905, Page 2

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

POLICE OBJECT TO BAIL.

USE OF HANDCUFFS.

Napier, Wednesday. James Manning Wigg was charged at the Magintrate’s; Court yesterday, before Mr H. W. Brabant, having on January 22nd, 1904, used means with in- ■■ tent to commit an illegal aot with regard to a married woman named Elizabeth Mary. Hewett, Mr Lusk agpeared for the accused. * f , Inspector Macdonell applied for an adjournment of the case until Monday next, and Mr Lusk, who appeared for the ao- - cused, . offered no objection. A remand was accordingly granted until the day named. ■’ ' Mr Lusk asked that, the accused oe admitted to bail. i Inspeotor Macdonell said he. did not think, from the information in hie possession, that it would be advisable to grant bail. There was : good reason to believe that some .time ago, when warned of the possible.consequences of the practices alleged against him, the. accused had said that,he would never be arrested al|ve, that he would do away with himself. It was known that at that time the accused carried a revolver in his vest pocket, but on bis arrest on the present oharge no j such weapon bad been found upon him. A email bottle of poison, however, was found in one of his pockets, and had been taken from him. It would be taking a great riak.i the Inspector said, to allow the aconsedrout on bail. ■ , . - /

Mr Lusk said he had expeoted Inspector Maodonell to oppose the application—it was characteristic. It was alleged that the offence occurred so far baok as January, 1004. The accused had been a resident in the district ever since, and had recently appeared in a case brought by Inspector Macdonell: against A. A. George for defamatory libel, a oase which bad been interrupted by his (Mr Lusk’s) unfortunate illness. The mere statement by Inspector Macdonell that the accused bad at one time carried a revolver Bhonld, counsel submitted, have no weight with the Court. Moreover, he had been in■trusted that what the polios had found on the accused when arrested was a hypodermic syringe, carried by many men in his calling, and a email tubs containing morphia aDd oocaine. There was no cause to suspect that the accused would take his life, and iu common law it was the right of every man to apply for bail, except in tbe oase of murder. Counsel asked that bail should be allowed, and that it should be fixed at a reasonable amount. To fix bail at a sum that would be practically prohibitive might result in the accused's being prevented from consulting bis counsel and deny him tbe proper opportunity of preparing bis defence to the grave oharge brought against him. The Inspeotor said he would like to say something farther as Mr Lusk had referred to “the other oaBe” (the libel aotion). His Worship: Ido not think there is any need to refer to.that. Mr’Lusk remarked be had simply referred to the oase, not to the facts. When Wigg was prepared to give evidence it diet not look as if he were very much afraid. Tbe Inspeotor said he would eee.atl about it before the matter was through. They had a most complete case agaiDßt tbe.prisoner, and probably others. They had seized his documents and books, and they contained reference to this case which would oonvict almost any man, while there were also documents which, would throw great light on the case between himself and George, and how tbe if evidence was being got out,.. - His Worship: We need not go into yens own case, • - - Mr Lusk: I should like to hear the statement. The inspeotor s Mr Lusk said he would not take my word for a statement. I quits believe he wants to judge me by himself. Mr Lusk : What a contrast 1 His Worship: I do not think it is a proper thing to consider that. The inspector: He referred to it first. Not me. I His Worship: I shall consider tho matter of bail and give my deoision this afternoon. I will, of course, have to make the bail substantial if he is admitted. The inspeotor: I promise the pnblia will be thoroughly satisfied when it is known what tbe police have got in their possession. Tbe prisoner was then removed uuiil after lunch. His Worship, after deliberation, safd bail would be granted, but, as tbe' charge was a very serious one, involving possibly imprisonment for life, substantial sureties* were necessary. The aooused would have to enter into his own reoognisanoe of s£SGQ and find two sureties in £250 each. Up to last night bail was not forthcoming.

Under the heading, " Polico Method?,” to-day’s Telegraph states :—“ We have no desire to hamper or embarrass the police in any way. They have an arduous and sometimes thankless task to perform. 'At the same tjme it is not... fitting that blunders should be always overlooked, and if what wo are informed is correct a regrettable blunder was committed in connection with the arrest of the aooused man Wigg, by bis being kept for about an hour with his arms handcuffed behind hie baok. We are told that after being induced by a, ruse to visit the Farndou station, ho was there handouffed as described and kept some time in that condition, and that this state of tfiings was not ameliorated until the train drew near to Napier. If this information is not well-founded we shall ba pleased to state so on proper authority. If it is accurate we regret ,in the interests of justioe no less than of humanity, that such is the case, r . We eay nothing as to the need for handcuffing the ptisoner at all. The polios are the best judges of that, we suppose, although to *■* average' citizen the sight‘of, two stalwart oonstables needing to handouff a little weak man hot long out of a bed in tho hospital tends to be unconvincing But, assuming the necessity of handcuffing, with two men in charge of the prisoner.it seems a pity that the ordinary method was not considered sufficient. If it be true that the polico handcuffed this small man in that way, their action might, by arousing a sort of natural resentment m onlookers tend to influence the iurv olass in tho direction of hostility against the police. . Hence from th* point of view of the interests o£ justioe, if such methods were resorted to they are properly questionable, even « wa dismiss as irrelevant in the case of arrested persons questions of humanity, Weiinaoretand that some justification o£ handcuffing has been already attempted In the shape of a statement that the prisoner bad poison on him when arrested. But it consisted merely of tablets of Boma drug supposed to be morphia, and was ao®°™P. an ' e( l by a hypodermio syringe, this sufficiently indicating the U3e made of the tablets. But these oould have been takers from him if the possession of poison was considered a reason for handcuffing. In, any oase, if bandonffing was ‘considered' necessary, we dp not Bee how it can s b& reasonably suggested that it should have the terra it Maid to have done,