ASSAULT ON GIRL.
[pY TKr.EGKAPH —-PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND. June 24. An extraordinary case was hoard at thy Police Court this morning when William Wheeler Kennedy, aged 22, pleaded guilty to a charge of having assaulted a girl. Constable AlcLean said that at 7 p.m. on June 14tb. be saw the accused approach the complainant in tin? street and grasp her by tlio throat and throw her hack on the pavement. He (AreLean) immediately arrested Kennedy, who said: “I’m all right! lam subject to fits, and I feel lib? assaulting somebody, so I’ll give it a fiy now.” The accused kept on saying: “You know what it is Constable!” He stated that, ho would strip the girl and then strip himself. Mr Poynton, S.AL : “That looks like symptoms of post-epileptic automatism.” “It was a cast? of mistaken identity. Your Worship,” said Kennedy. “If it had been tho girl I thought it was, it would have been all right. I admit that I put my arm around her, but I did not throw her down on the pavement. I did not grasp her by the throat, either. I was greatly agitated at the time, and I may have said something. I could walk down Queen Street- twenty times a. day and not commit a breach of the law.” Air Poynton: “Well, you certainly misbehaved yourself this time.” The Magistrate then asked the constable whether the accused had explained to him that- he took the girl for another, and also as to whether the aonstabfe was sure that Kennedy grasped the girl hv the throat and put her down on her hack. Constable McLean replied that the accused made no explanation to him about mistaken identity. The accused certainly caught the girl by the throat. When witness arrested Kennedy. the girl was lying on her hack. Kennedy: “Well. Sir. T ask yon to deal leniently with me.” My Poynton : “I cannot do that.” Our girls must he protected. This sort of tiling might easily lead to tragedies. I don’t know what might have happened if it had been a secluded place.” Two- months’ imprisonment- was the sentence imposed.
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Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1926, Page 1
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356ASSAULT ON GIRL. Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1926, Page 1
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