ORDERED TO QUIT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10298, 5 June 1919, Page 7

ORDERED TO QUIT

A WADESTOWN EPISODE NOCTURNAL INTRUDER'S VIOLENT CONDUCT. Wadestown's usual quietness was disturbed on the night of May 27th by an incident which was extremely lively for the short time it lasted. As a result of the episode a hefty young man named Herbert Maloney wa6 called upon in the Magistrate's Court yesterday to answer a. charge of being a rogue and vagabond in that he was found by night without lawful excuse on the premises occupied by George Nash. In addition ho was charged with assaulting and resisting: Constable Williams, and also with damaging his uniform. According to the evidence of George Nash the intruder went to his house and asked for a whisky. He was told in emphatic terms to get off the premises, but was just as emphatic in his refusal to go. Witness was indisposed at the time and his sister went in search of Constable Williams. When the constable reached the house, however, the intruder had vanished, hut he was subsequently traced to the hay loft. Maloney was taken into tha house and it was here that matters assumed a lively aspect. Maloney suddenly attacked the constable, knocked his helmet off and struck him! a severe blow in the ribs. It was not long, however, before the constable gained the upper hand, and Maloney was removed from the house. Defendant rather minutely cross-ex-amined Nash as to the relations between the two. Witness admitted that on occasions the accused stayed at his house and did gardening jobs for him. Witness (to the court) : Why; I have been sleeping in the same room with him for the past two or three months. Nash denied that Maloney had been invited to the house. He had put in an appearance on several nights and had always been ordered to leave. Constable Williams stated that Maloney resisted violently, and he was forced to use his baton. In the struggle witness was rather badly knocked about and had not been able to resume duty till that day. Some months ago he had had to arrest Maloney on another charge, and the latter had threatened, a sort of vendetta.

Defendant's explanation in the wit-ness-box was that in consequence of his suffering from a poisoned leg he had been invited by Nash to go to the house as often as he liked. He ha<3 only taken advantage of that invitation. On the night of the trouble accused possessed a bottle of beer and Nash wanted this. He was nearly ready to go to bed when Nash told his sister to go for the constable. Accused did not deny that he struck the constable. -Mr F. V. Frazer, S.M., remarked that it might be a fact, looking at the evidence, that there was something between Maloney and Nash. The whole trouble, which turned out so seriously, was that when Nash ordered him to leave the house he refused to go. The offences as far as the constable was concerned were of a most serious nature, and for the assault Maloney would bo sent to jail for one month. He would also "he ordered tb pay the cost of the damage (£4t ss) or be imprisoned for a further term of 21 days. For being a rogue and vagabond Maloney would be convicted and discharged. . ,