WIFE ASSAULTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26639, 9 December 1947, Page 6

WIFE ASSAULTED

CHARGES AGAINST HUSBAND REVOLVER PRESENTED P.A. NAPIER, Dec. 8. The accused, on his own admission, was so adept at shooting that he could knock the tip from a cigarette being smoked by his wife, said Senior Detective D. McKenzie in the Police Court when a Puketapu farmer was charged with presenting a firearm at his wife and also with assaulting her. The accused, Leon Shadrack '"Woods, aged 29, who pleaded guilty, was convicted and discharged on , the charge of assaulting his wife, while on the other count he was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within 18 months. Senior Detective McKenzie said that on November 22 Woods had visited the Puketapu hotel and, according to his own statement, consumed 40 to 50 beers. When the accused reached home, his wife remonstrated with him because of his drunken condition. A heated argument ensued. The wife got into a car to drive Woods to the milking sheds. Woods pulled her out of the car, tried to push her into a drain and - punched her about the face and head. The wife escaped and sought the aid of a neighbour, but the accused appeared, brandishing a revolver and shouting to his wife that he would give her five minutes to get home. The wife ran away and, as she was getting , through a fence, Woods fired a shot over her head. He ■fired a further two or three shots. Later. the accused “ virtually wrecked ” his house, smashing his wife’s presents and belongings. Senior Detective McKenzie said the accused had told the police that he could remove matches from between a person’s fingers with' a revolver and that 'he could also shoot off the tip of a lighted cigarette held in his wife’s mouth. Counsel for the accused said the wife was prepared to take him back. The Magistrate warned Woods that he would have to endeavour to keep himself under control in future.