DESERVED A SLAP

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 872, 16 January 1930, Page 11

DESERVED A SLAP

MAN WHO HELD GIRL’S HAND ASSAULT AT FARMHOUSE From Our Own Correspondent PUKEKOHE, Wednesday. Remarking tliat he could not disbelieve the evidence of the girl, Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., fined a young man, whose name was suppressed, in the Pukekohe Court today, for assaulting a young woman at Maramarua. Mr. H. V. B. Townsend appeared for the accused. The girl, in evidence, stated she was employed as a domestic at Maramarua, and on December 2 accused, who wa3 delivering the mail, called at the house in the absence of her employer. After conversation he asked her to go inside with him, but she refused. The man then endeavoured to persuade her and failing this caught her by the hand. She broke away and remained talking to him for about half an hour, during which time he made improper suggestions. The Bench commented that the natural thing for a girl to do in such circumstances would be to slap her molester’s face. The wife of the girl’s employer said she did not see accused, but on her return notified the police after hearing the story of the girl. From the witness-box accused said the owner of the house asked him to take the letters to the house. He had a conversation with the girl and after she told him she was lonely he asked her to go for a drive in the lorry. He emphatically denied the assault or the making of improper suggestions. To Sergeant J. T. Cowan he replied that he invited her inside for a chat. The magistrate said young women must be protected against even minor assaults. He fined, accused £3 with £3 costs, and on counsel’s plea ordered the suppression of his name.