APPEAL DISMISSED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26637, 6 December 1947, Page 3

APPEAL DISMISSED

ASSAULT CONVICTION An appeal against a conviction entered in th'e Police Court for assaulting a girl aged 11 years was dismissed by Mr Justice Kennedy in the Supreme Court yesterday morning. The appellant was Robert Milne Stewart, a 48-year-o’d electrician (Mr F. W. Guest),-who was convicted on charges of drunkenness and assault by Mr J. D. Willis, S.M., on October 28. Mr J. B. Deaker represented the Crown. It was contended by the Crown that an assault had been committed on the evening of October 20, when the appellant had accosted the girl in the Exchange, taken her arm and led her into a milk bar where he bought her an ice cream and a milk shake. The proprietor of the milk bar stated that the girl had been frightened and, after she had complained to him, he ordered the appellant out of the shop. He had seen him in the shop with small boys on previous occasions. For the appellant, it was submitted that the incident was a casp of mistaken identity and that the girl had gone voluntarily with Stewart. He had offered her a milk shake to make amends for having spoken to her by mistake.

His Honor said that he was satisfied that the girl had refused the appellant’s offer and that he had interfered with her by taking her arm and walking her into the shop. “ Such a form of molestation may properly be regarded as an assault and I consider that the conviction was properly entered,” he said.