COMMON ASSAULT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 105, 20 May 1937, Page 9

COMMON ASSAULT

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Verdict in Wanganui Case SHOWMAN'S ATTACK

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" WANGANUI, Last Night. The jury in the Supreme Court to-day. found a verdict of guilty of common assauit against Charles Henry JBoume, aged 27, showman, and rejected the major counts alleging attempted murder and other more serious assauit charges. The case for the Crown was that Ernest Frederick de Tourret had purchased a house in whidh accused and his mother were tenants and had shifted in and offered to let them remain there till they r found another house. It was alleged accused objected to this and had obtained a doubleharrelled gun from the washhouse, loaded both barrells and, pointing it at the Ihead of de Tourret, counted .thres three times and then' flred a shot, missing de Tourret, who sprang forward and sideways. The shot went out. the window of the porch. Accused version was that he had had an argument with de Tourret But had cdoled down and de Tourret suggested showing ihim some wrestling holds and later how to disarm a man • menacing another. Bis Honour, Sir John Reed, summing up, said that the stories of de Tourret and accused were irreconcilable and one or other was wrong. It was for the jury to say whether de Tourret had invented his story or whether accused had made up his version and stuck to it right throtigh. The jury retired at 11.22 a.m. and returned at 3,12 p.m. with a verdict of guilty of common assauit. Accused was remanded for sentence.