HOUSEHOLD TERRORISED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 518, 22 November 1928, Page 1

HOUSEHOLD TERRORISED

Two Men Attacked at Clevedon

CLUMSY BLOWS WITH HAMMER

ATTACKING two men, much older than himself, with a hammer, and threatening: to burn down a house owned by one of them, James Tait succeeded in terrorising a Clevedon household for a whole Sunday afternoon last September.

Tait was summoned to the Police Court to answer charges of assaulting George Arthur Humphrey - Davies and Stanley Austin Carr, at Clevedon on September 9. Mr. R. A. Singer entered a plea of not guilty on Tait’s behalf. Captain Humphreys-Davies in evidence said that he was driving along Mr. Carr’s private drive toward the house when he saw a man and woman, the former with a gun, walking along behind the hedge. A car was drawn up close to the house. The captain then heard barking and saw a dog chasing some sheep belonging to himself and Mr. Carr. Mr, Singer: A pomeranian dog about 18 inches long and eight inches high. Witness jumped out of his car and walked down the gully toward the dog. encountering another man and woman, "who said that the dog was not chasing the sheep but was merely playing with them. “I asked them if they knew they were on private property,” continued Mr. Humphrey-Davies, “and Tait told me he could go where he liked, as he was a Government inspector in the Forestry Department. The woman had a jar under her arm, so I asked Tait whether he had a hammer, as the track led to the beach where there were oyster beds.” The captain had then returned to the drive and was looking at the number of the . car when Tait came up behind him- raying, “Now I have got you alone.”"' Witness was then attacked. .. He , succeeded in avoiding

[ his assailant's rather clumsy blows sc Tait said to the other man, who had come up in the meantime, “what have you done with that gun?" Mr. Carr then came up in answer to the captain’s cries and Tait attacked them both with a hammer which he had taken from his overcoat pockc-t. The other man, whose name witness would not mention as he w’as at present serving a long term in gaol, stood by and refused to give any assistance. The struggle -went on at intervals for about twenty minutes, Tait threatening to “do them in” with the hammer and burn down the house. “Mr. Carr and I owe our lives to Mrs. Humphreys-Davies,” concluded the captain. “When Tait tried to follow us into the house, she tried to restrain him, telling him that we were both subject to severe heart attacks.” Stanley Austin Carr corroborated Captain Humpheys-Davies’s story, adding that he thought Tait to be mad. Mr. Singer could offer no defence except that Tait had been drinking and behaving like a raving lunatic. “This is a very bad assault,” commented the magistrate. “The man has behaved like a blackguard and terrorised a household for a whole Sunday afternoon.” Tait was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for the assault aeainst Captain Humphreys-Davies. His. protest was silenced by Mr. Hunt, who washed that he could impose a heavier penalty. On the second charge, Tait was fined £lO, in default a month’s imprisonment. Costs amounted to £7 10s.