ALIBI NOT ACCEPTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 694, 20 June 1929, Page 1

ALIBI NOT ACCEPTED

UNPROVOKED ASSAULT ON HINDU MONTH’S GAOL RESULTS Refusing to accept an alibi which relied on accused’s own word, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court this morning sentenced George Reid to one month’s imprisonment for assaulting a Hindu. Reid, aged 43, was charged with assaulting Chana Kurarji, on June 15. He pleaded not guilty. Kurarji, who limped forward on crutches, said that accused, with another man, had visited his house in Victoria Street last Saturday looking for a man who had a room there. Witness had told them that the man was out, but they had refused to believe him, and had gone along to the room, which was locked. They had then returned to the kitchen, where witness had been when they first saw him. Accused’s companion had held witness while accused had struck him on the face and hit him on the ankle with a broom handle. it was as a result of the latter injury that witness had his foot bound ui> and was on crutches. Kurarji’s evidence was corroborated by a fellow-countryman and a Hindu boy of 12, both of whom were in the room at the time of the assault. Reid’s defence was that he had not been near the house at the time the Hindu was attacked. He was far away.

The Magistrate: Call your witnesses. Reid: There is just myself. The Magistrate: It is not enough. I don’t believe you. You have too many convictions. One month.