REGANS ROUSH-UP.

NZ Truth, Issue 92, 23 March 1907, Page 6

REGANS ROUSH-UP.

A Funny Affair m Frederick-

Street.

A Man Brutally Dashed.

Did the Dutchmen Do It?

Early last Thursday morning there was something adoing m Frederickstreet, which is oK Tory-street, by which a bootmaker named Michael Regan was brutally maltreated and apparently left for dead. At about 1.30 a.m.' loud cries of "Help.," "Police," "murder" drew Sergeant Hutton and Constable Longbottom into Tory-street, where they came across Regan, who was m a frightful state. He had a nasty wound on the top of his head, a gash over his right eye, from both of which the

BLOOD RUSHED IN TORRENTS. Regan bore every indication of having received a terrible handling, and from what he said, the police were led to arrest, from a house m Fred-erick-street, a drunken woman named Mary . Walsh and a man named George Hunter, who, when taken to the Mount Cook Police Station, was' at once identified by Regan, who too was drunk, as his assailant. The whole three were locked up, and Regan was attended by Dr. Gilmer, who stitched up his eye and the wound on the head. BothJßegan and the woman Walsh were dealt with by the S.M. on a charge of drunkenness, and Hunter then toed the scratch on a charge of assaulting Regan, and to that charge he pleaded not guilty. Hunter looks a tough character, and is one of those roughs that make police protection imperatively necessary for the . few respectable residents m that tough "quarter.

However, when Regan was put m the witness box, his memory failed him of the events of the early morning. He remembered haying gone to the house m Frederickstreet, but beyond stating that \he gave Hunter a shilling and a 1 tie pin, he could not be prevailed upon to say anything definite about what had happened. This much, however, he. did say. When he had gone into the house he had not the injuries he had when he^came out. He could not remember 'having any quarrel over' a tie pin. Then, Mary Walsh, a once fair daughter of Erin, told her story. Regan, she said, had come into Hunter's place through a window.' Even then he showed signs of having had trouble, as there was blood on his face, and she added-' That Reg^n had said that he had got into A SCRAP WITH SOME DUTCHMEN. His injuries at that time were nothing to those which he bore that Thursday morning. Moreover, she I said 'that there was a sqwabble between Hunter and Regan over tie pin and the upshot of it was that Hunter invited Regan out to fight. They went, out, and there, 'as far as "WalsMe" knew, the matter ended. She was afterwards pinched herself for being drunk. It was unsatisfactory evidence, and if the .police knew anything they would not have given it m evidence, but Sub-Inspector O 'Donovan pressed hard for a conviction. The Magistrate • considered, however, that there was nqfcr-sufiicient evidence before him bfrwliich' to coiffvict Hunter,' ami" lie" discharged him, much to the apparent chagrin of the police. ;