ASSAULT CHARGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26618, 14 November 1947, Page 3

ASSAULT CHARGE

POLICE COURT CASE On a charge of assault, Reginald Walter Busing, aged 53, an engineer, was convicted and fined £lO in the City Police Court yesterday, when Mr J. D. Willis, S.M., was on the Bench. Mr W. A. McAlevey appeared for the accused, who pleaded not guilty. Mrs Madeline Ishtar Johnston, in evidence, said the accused lived in a flat belonging to her. She had been trying to get him out because he had attempted to assault her criminally about a fortnight ago. The accused came to her house on the evening of November 12 and struck her several times, leaving her with bruises on her head and chest. He did not seem to be drunk. Questioned by Mr McAlevey, Mrs Johnston said she did not hit the accused at any time, although she admitted throwing water from a jug over him. William Robert Martin Hammond, a pupil at the Otago Boys High School, and the grandson of Mrs Johnston, said he was in the next room to his gandmother when the accused called. He did not take much notice of what was said, but saw the accused striking Mrs Johnston, and he went to telephone the police. Busing said that he had called on Mrs Johnston for her to sign for the rent he had sent to her by registered letter. She refused to do this, using an offensive expression to him, under which provocation he had struck her. She also threw a jug of water over him. Recalled to the witness box, Mrs 'Johnston denied applying any offensive word to the accused. The magistrate convicted Busing and inflicted a fine of £lO. Case Adjourned The case in which Thomas Carlyle Ellis, aged 25, a labourer, was charged with assault on George Albert Terry on November 9, was adjourned until November 20. Bail was renewed.