STRUCK WOMAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 856, 27 December 1929, Page 1

STRUCK WOMAN

MAGISTRATE CENSURES STREET BULLY BASH’S BLOW COSTS £5 “A great big, hulking man like you!” said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court this morning when Frederick Arnold Bash admitted striking a girl, aged 25. Bash, a seaman, aged 29, was charged with assaulting Rosetta Keesing yesterday. “I pleaij guilty under provocation,” he said. The Magistrate: What provocation could you have for hitting a woman? Sub-Inspector McCarthy said he understood the woman to have followed Bash to an hotel, where she had a talk with him. Accused's story was that she had been abusive. However that might be, Bash had suddenly hauled back and struck the woman on the face. He had been living with her for four years.

Bash claimed that it was not a hard blow. “It was more of a push,” he said. | The Magistrate: I should like to hear more about that blow. The Sub-Inspector: There is no doubt about it, but I can call a witness.

Henry Jackson, a taxi-driver on the Quay Street stand, gave the time of the offence as about 2.30 in the afternoon. Accused had hit the woman a straight-out blow, and, as far as witness could see, there had been no provocation. Bash said the woman had been bothering him for some time. “I give her all my money,” he said. “I gave her £ls when X last came back from the sea and I have nothing myself.” The Magistrate: You have no right to hit women in the street. Bash: I have to put up with her abuse. - • The Sub-Inspector: He has his remedy. He can leave her as he is not married to her. A fine of £5, in default 14 days’ imprisonment, was imposed and Bash asked for time to pay, complaining that he had lost a job by having to attend the court. He could get the money within 14 days. Mr. Hunt suggested that accused send out by the police for the money. “The woman will be along with the money,” put in Chief-Detective Hammond. “The more a mail hits them the more they like it.”