ASSAULT AFTER CHASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 626, 1 April 1929, Page 16

ASSAULT AFTER CHASE

DRUNKEN MAN TRIPS GIRL UP

CAPTURE ENDS LONG RUN Pursuing .a 14-year-old girl along several streets in Newmarket on Saturday, a man overtook her halfway across a road, and tripped her. Several people heard the girl screaming. Then came a chase. Another man appeared on the scene, and ran after the offender for half a mile before he caught him. William Janies Bachelor, aged 30, a builder, of Ngongotaha, was the man who tripped the girl. Evidence produced in the Police Court this morning showed that Bachelor was drunk when he annoyed the girl, who suffered no injury. Bachelor was charged with being drunk in Clyde Place, and with committing an aggravated assault on a girl. For drunkenness, he was fined 10s, and on the second count he was convicted and fined £2 10s by Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M.. and ordered to pay witnesses’ expenses. Mr. J. J. Sullivan, for the accused, said that guilt was admitted, although Bachelor did not remember what had happened. Sub-Inspector McCarthy said that Bachelor had followed the girl and tripped her, but he did not place his hands on her. Several people saw the offence. The girl had escaped uninjured. Mr. Sullivan: The Tacts have been fairly stated. I suggest that there were extenuating circumstances. The man was drunk. It is his first appearance in court, and he is a hardworking married man with one child. Mr. McKean said that it was obvious that Bachelor was drunk, otherwise a more serious view of the case would have been taken.