BROOKS ACQUITTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 186, 27 October 1927, Page 18

BROOKS ACQUITTED

“UNSATISFACTORY EVIDENCE” HERNE BAY STABBING DRUNKENNESS NO EXCUSE “We find the accused not guilty and are of the opinion that the evidence of the chief Crown witness was most unsatisfactory,” Thus the jury sitting at the trial of Herbert Marshall Brooks, who was charged at the Supreme Court yesterday with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. The case came before Mr. Justice Herdman, and was the result of an affray in the home of Alexander Percy Cuthbert Bentley when he was -stabbed by the accused with a-bread-knife following a scuffle. In his evidence Bentley said lie was a bosom friend of. the accused, and that the trouble had arisen through his attempt to remonstrate with Brooks for drinking. It was the suggestion of Mr. Paterson, for the Crown, that Bentley had not been frank in his evidence, but had discussed it with Brooks with a view of putting the best possible aspect on it. ‘The whole affair was the sequel to a purely domestic squabble.” said Mr. J. F. W. Dickson, “and there was no criminal intent on the part of Brooks. It was not as though he had gone out to purchase a revolver, a dagger, or other lethal weapon. It happened that he had the bread-knife in his hand. He was very drunk, and a struggle took place between him and his friend, who had come in to remonstrate with him for his drinking habits. In the course of the struggle the knife came accidentally into contact with the back of Bentley’s neck.” “It is a well-establish principle,” remarked his Honour, “that drunkenness, generally speaking, is no excuse for crime. If it were so then in a multitude of cases, men who had committed serious crimes would be forgiven. “When, however, it was definitely proved that the man was under the influence of liquor, it was for the jury to decide whether the mind of the man was capable of forming a criminal intent. One of the two must have been the aggressor, and I do not think it possible to suggest that Bentley was the aggressor.” , The verdict of not guilty and the rider were returned after a retirement of an hour and a-half.