STOKERS’ NIGHT OUT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 889, 5 February 1930, Page 1

STOKERS’ NIGHT OUT

TWO FIGHTS WITHIN FEW MINUTES GAOL FOR BOTH MEN After a few drinks yesterday, George Thornham and John Ryan, with two companions, assaulted a newsvendor in the railway entrance. A few minutes later they set to work on a constable, who would have been in difficulties had it not been for the aid of bystanders. Both men appeared at the Police Court this morning, and were sentenced to two months’ imprisonment by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M. Thornham and Ryan, both firemen and both aged 36, could not remember assaulting Arthur Hayward Dowsing yesterday afternoon. Ryan had no recollection either of obstructing Constable Day or using obscene language. Thornham admitted being drunk, resisting the constable, using obscene language and committing mischief by damaging a pair of trousers to the extent of £1 13s.

Senior-Sergeant O’Grady gave the time of the offences as 4.30. Dowsing had complained of being assaulted, and Constable Day accosted the two. Thornham had used obscene language and when the constable attempted to arrest him, both men had resisted. The constable was thrown to the ground and, had it not been for the timely assistance of civilians, might have been in for a bad time. Dowsing, with a bandage over' one eye, identified accused as two of the men who had attacked him. They had punched him and then knocked him down and kicked at him.

Thornham had been making himself objectionable to a Post and Tele graph official when witness had first seen him, according to Constable Day. “I suggested we go to the wharf police station to talk over the as sault,” continued the constable.

“Thornham then used the language and I grabbed him. Ryan came behind and pulled us both to the ground. A civilian pulled Ryan off and I handcuffed Thornham. Both men were using obscene language.” Neither of the accused had anything further to say, and the senior-sergeant described them as well known in the court. Ryan had 29 previous convictions and Thornham 57. Thornham had last been convicted on January

IS and Ryan on January 20. Both accused were sentenced to a month’s imprisonment each on the assault and a similar term for resisting the constable, the penalties to be cumulative.