CABARET BRAWLERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 709, 8 July 1929, Page 11

CABARET BRAWLERS

DISORDERLY YOUNG MEN AT DANCE ONE MONTH’S GAOL EACH Two young men who made a disturbance in a Ponsonby dancehall on Saturday evening and then assaulted men who were rash enough to attempt to pacify them, were each sentenced to one month’s imprisonment at the Police Court this morning. Leslie John Walding, aged 20, and John Siddens, aged 19, were charged ■with behaving in a disorderly manner, Both youths were charged with assaulting Frank Daniel Eade and Raymond James Lynch, and Siddens, in addition, was charged with assaulting Richard Frank Sorenson. Walding admitted assaulting Eade. pleading not guilty on other counts. Siddens pleaded guilty on all three charges of assault, but denied tl\at he had behaved in a disorderly manner. SubInspector McCarthy pointed out that the admission of the assaults was equivalent to an admission of disorderly behaviour. It was the subinspector’s opinion that accused were two of a number of young men whose custom it was to visit dance halls, making themselves particularly obnoxious and ending up by fighting. Mr. Lynch, M.C. at the dance where the two accused had made a disturbance, said that the young men were under the influence of liquor. Girls had complained to witness that the men were forcing attentions on them, .and he had removed one of them from the hall by force. Both had then turned on him and Eade had come to witness’s assistance. The sub-inspector referred to Walking’s list of 16 convictions. Both he and Siddens had been up before the court together in 1927 on charges similar to those at present before the court. The sub-inspector described the two accused as members of a Newton gang of hoodlums, who had been many times warned by the police. “No chance of a fine?” asked Siddens as sentence was passed. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: No, and you will get six months if you come here again,