SUPREME COURT.—CRIMINAL SITTINGS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4227, 7 October 1874, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.—CRIMINAL SITTINGS.

Tuesday, October 6. (Before His Honor Mr. Justice Johnston.) CBIMIKAL ASSAULT. Frank Bradley was charged that he did on the first day of September, 187-4, criminally hf assault and ill-use one Anne Morissey. John Green, sworn, stated : On the night pi the ] st September I saw a woman named Anne Morissey lying helplessly drunk on a verandah in Cuba Street. At my suggestion some persons who were standing by moved the woman and carried her to a cab in a yard off the street some two hundred yards higher up. The woman did not move or speak when being cirried. I saw them put her in the cab, and I then went on up the . street. In about ten minutes I returned, and I saw a man with his hand outside the cab door closing it. I .went and gave information to a constable, with whom I returned in about a quarter of an hour. The constable opened the cab door; there was a gas lamp about ten yards off on the opposite side of the road. (The witness here described the position in which he found the prisoner and the women.) I then went to the police station, leaving the constable with the prisoner, and returned in about twenty minutes with another constable. We removed . the woman in a cab to the station ; and she appeared to revive somewhat from her drunken state, although she was still under the influence of drink.

Constable John Marsh, sworn, stated : On the night of Ist September I received information in consequence of •winch I went to Goodwin's yard in Cuba Street, and there found a ■cab standing in the yard, the door of which I opened. (The witness here corroborated the evidence of the previous witness as to the positions of the parties in the cab.) I arrested prisoner, and he said it was a bad job. I starfc-sd off to the station with the prisoner, whilst Green. —the last witness—was away for a cab.

To prisoner : I cannot swear that you committed an assault on the female. You were arrested about ten minutes before the other prisoner was. Constable William Gray corroborated the evidence respecting the state of the woman. Anne Morissey, sworn, stated : I am a married woman, living in Wellington, in service. Morissey is my maiden name. .John Setter is my husband's name. I was married three days after something took place. I remember awaking one morning in the policestation. The night before, I went on an errand and met Home shipmates, and went to a public-house, where I got the worse of drink. I became insensibly drunk. The last tiling I recollect, was getting as far as Dixon Street, on rny way home alone. X. do not know anything about the prisoner. I do not recollect seeing him until at the police-station. (The witness here denied certain evidence which she had sworn to at the Police Court ; but on having her depositions placed before her, said that they were true.) ; To His Honor: I have been about six months in the Colony, and came out in the flhip Woodlark. Setter came out in the same ship; he is a sea-faring man. The occasion referred to in this case is the only time I got into trouble. When the occurrence took place I was living at Mrs, Curtis'a, in Thorndon. I

began drinking about 8 o'clock in the evening. There were two or three of us together. I was married in the Wesleyan Chapel, to Setter, three days after the occurrence, took place. _ I was married when the Police Court inquiry took place, and my husband died about twelve months ago. Nicholas Hines was the name of my first husband ; he was a sailor, and we were married in Liverpool. I never used to be called Hines at home, so I described myself as Morissey at the Police Court, although my name was then Hines. (The marriage register was here produced, showing that witness, when married to Setter, was described as Honova Hines, spinster.) Setter knew I was a widow when he married me. I used always to go by my own name of Morissey, and not by my husband's name—Hines. They used to call me Anne, as short for Honora, at home. - This closed the case for the Crown. His- Honor recalled Constable Marsh, who stated that the prisoner was slightly under the influence of drink when arrested. Prisoner called several witnesses as to character. The foreman here asked His Honor to inquire if the police knew anything respecting the character of the woman Morissey. His Honor thought that such a course, under the circumstances, would be irregular and scarcely proper. Mr. Izard offered no objection to the inquiry being made. His Honor then remarked that as the woman had given an unsatisfactory account of herself, he would allow the Inspector of Police to be sworn and interrogated. Inspector Atcheson, on being sworn, stated that he knew nothing against the woman's character, and that she was now in a respectable situation. The prisoner, on being called upon to make his defence, said that he had not much to say. The evidence did not prove that he had assaulted the woman, and she had just denied portions of her evidence given at the Police Court examination. He would leave his case in the harids of the jury," satisfied that they would do him justice. His Honor then addressed the jury. _He remarked that the case was one of a painful nature, and one which they must be very careful in deciding upon. There were certainly some suspicious circumstances connected witfi the case. On the other hand, there was an apparently respectable man charged with the offence of assaulting a woman, who had given her evidence in a very unsatisfactory manner. The fact of the woman being found in a hopelessly drunken state was also "commented on by His Honor, who carefully reviewed the whole of the case. The jury then retired, and after an absence of a quarter of an hour, returned to Court with a verdict of " Not guilty." The prisoner was then discharged. Alfred Arneh was then placed upon his trial for the same offence upon the same woman. The evidence in this case was similar to that given in the previous one, with additional and stronger evidence respecting the position in which Arneh was found with the woman in the cab, which pointed very strongly to the conclusion that an assault had been committed. The prisoner made no defence, and His Honor summed up unfavorably to the prisoner. The jury retired, and after an absence of about half-an-hour, brought in a verdict of " Guilty," with a strong recommendation to mercy. The prisoner called a witness who came out in the same ship as to character. His Honor then sentenced the prisoner to one month's imprisonment. This completed the business of the sitting, and the Court adjourned sine die.