“DRUNKEN BRAWL”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 610, 12 March 1929, Page 13

“DRUNKEN BRAWL”

“HAZY” MAN ASSAULTED MAN AND WOMAN FINED As a result of what counsel described as a drunken brawl, James Mackin, a seaman, aged 34, and Ettie O’Toole, aged 41, were charged at the Police Court this morning with assaulting Carl Grey. Mr. Sullivan pleaded guilty for Mackin, but O’Toole denied her guilt, though she admitted breaking the terms of her prohibition order. Mackin and O’Toole were sitting in Freeman’s Bay drunk on Saturday afternoon, according to Senior-Ser-geant O’Grady, when Grey came and sat beside them. He was also drunk and O’Toole knocked him down, jumped on him and belaboured him with both fists. Mackin had then taken a hand. Air. Sullivan referred to Mackin’s good record. The man did not know how he came to be with O’Toole, and counsel asked the magistrate not to believe that they were working as a combination. Mackin and Grey were the best of friends and accused, though he had domestic troubles, was now going back to live with his wife, a sick child being a bond to draw them toetlier. Counsel consequently asked for leniency. Mackin was fined £3. Grey, who admitted he was hazy about the whole affair, said that he had visited several hotels on Saturday afternoon and was very drunk. He remembered somebody knocking him down. He had not forgotten being locked up. however. His appearance this morning was eloquent testimony to the violence of the assault. O'Toole’s defence was based largely on tho assumption that no gentleman would speak to a lady until he had been introduced. "What did lie want to speak to me for?” she asked. O'Toole was fined £3 for assault and £2 for the breach of her prohibition order. She was given a week to find the money.