AVONDALE INCIDENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 657, 8 May 1929, Page 11

AVONDALE INCIDENT

MAN FACES SERIOUS CHARGES A charge of improperly handling a young girl at Avondale on March 31 last led to Bertram Augustine O’Connor, 35, standing his trial in the Supreme Court to-day, before Mr. Justice Herdman, on a charge of indecent assault, alternatively of common assault. Mr. Y. R. Meredith, Crown Prosecutor, prosecuted, and Mr. Noble appeared for accused. On being interviewed by ActingDetective Packman, O’Connor declared that he had seen the child knocking* at 3, shop and receiving no answer. He went through the fence and knocked, with a similar result. At the child’s request, he lifted her on to a box to enable her to knock. He emphatically denied the allegations. For the defence, Mr. Noble described the incident as a remarkable illustration of how the kind-hearted action of an innocent man could be construed with such a sinister aspect alleging that he had done an abominable thing. O’Connor, in the box, told a story on the same lines as his statement to the police. The child had been playing with his children on several occasions and other girls had told the child certain things about him. Medical evidence given by a pathologist and two other doctors supported the prosecution's statement that The girl had been the victim of a (Proceeding.) . -