NOVEL ASSAULT CASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 69

NOVEL ASSAULT CASE.

FORCIBLE DEBT COLLECTION. (Fbok Our Own Correspondent.) GREYMOUTH, March 6. A case presenting some unusual features was heard at the Supreme Court at Hokitika yesterday, when T. O. Jones was charged with assault and robbery. Accused entered a plea of " Not guilty," and the evidence went to show that another man named Jones owed the accused £14 for a gambling debt — money won at two-up. The prosecutor admitted that he owed the money, but said that he would never pay the amount, as accused had won it by unfair means — viz., by using a two-headed coin. Prosecutor left the Big River, (where the two-up had been played) on a Sunday unknown to anybody. "Accused got " wind " of the disappearance, and immediately set out after Jone3, whom he found playing cards in an hotel at Cronadon. Ho immediately demanded his money, which was refused. A struggle followed, but prosecutor got free and ran up the road, with the accused after him. The two again closed, and the accused then got the best of the fight and took the money out of prosecutor's pocket. His Honor remarked on the peculiar circumstances, but said a man had no right to take the law in his own hands. To meet the case he would put the following special issues to the jury : — (1) Did the accused take the money from David Jones against his will with the intention of paying a gambling debt due to him from David Jones and .with the intention of pernxa-

nently depriving David Jones of such money ? (2) Was such money taken b\ accused under the honest belief that he was legally entitled to it? The jury found accused guilty of assault on David Jones, with a strong recommendation to mercy. They replied " Yes " to the first of his Honor' 6 issues, and "No" to the second. His Honor fined Jones £10 for the assault, and ordered him to come up . for sentence if called on on the charsfo of robbery. j