WELLINGTON ASSAULT CASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 18

WELLINGTON ASSAULT CASE.

APPEAL DISMISSED. WELLINGTON, August 12. In a joint judgment delivered by Mr - Justice Chapman this morning, their Honprs Justices Cooper and Chapman upheld the decision of Mr Riddell, S.M.. in the case of ex-Constable William Joseph Gardiner, and affirmed the conviction entered by the magistrate. ' Gardiner will, therefore, have to undergo the sentence of three weeks' imprisonment imposed on him by Mr Riddell on a charge of assaulting one Mrs Florence Beatrice Rolfe. on Ma.y 10, in a street fracas, in which three constables — Watson, Clay, and Gardiner — were involved. In their judgment, given. at some length, their Honors traversed the evidence of the whole affair. The story of the case has already been told, both at the time of proceedings in the Magistrate's Court, when Sub-inspector Phair was prosecutor, and later in the Supreme Court, when Gardiner appealed. Shortly, the facts were these : All thiee constables — Watson, Clay, and Gardiner — were in plain clothes and off duty at the time, and! they had been drinking. Mr and Mrs Rolfe came across Watson and Gardiner' in Jer-i vois quay apparently assaulting Clay.Clay endavoard 10 assure the Rolfes that it was only a friendly exhibition of wrestling. The Rolfes did not accept this version, znd Gardiner and Watson resented their interference. - Two sailors joined, in the argument. Watson struck at one of them, and followed him up*- some distance. One of the constables attacked Rolfe, and fisticuffs followed. Then Mrs Rolfe was etiuck, and, in the words of a sailor, witness " went down like a log." Several witnesses gave evidence as to the assault on Mrs Rolfe, but the evidence as. to the identity of the assailant was not very, clear. The conviction was affirmed^' with £10 10s costs. At the hearing Mr Skerrett, K.C., appeared for the appellant, Mr Myers for the respondent, and Sub-inspector Phair was the prosecutor in the lower court*