SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 229, 22 November 1900, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

ITOKS ORPHANAGE ASSAULT OABBSI PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. WsLHNaTON, November 21. Mr. Justice Edwards decided this ' norning in reference to the Stoke Orphanage cases that the counts in the indictment against firo. Kilian should betaken separately. The intention of the Legislature was that the Court should-exercise unrestricted discretion ts to separating the trials if such a course were conducive to the ends of jußtice, and in this case—in which six separate assaults were alleged upon separate persons, and covering a period of two years—such a course was desirable. Latbh, The first of the Stoke eases began this afternoon, Jas. Solan (Bro. Kiliaß) surrendering to his bail and pleading not guilty to a charge of having committed a common assault on a boy named James Joseph Owens on May 30th. Messrs. H. D. Bell and M. Myers prosecuted for the Drown, and Messrs. Skerrett, Fell, and Wilford, appeared for the defence. The case for the Grown was that Owens had been boxed on the ears, had his head punched, and excessively beaten with a supplejack. Mr. Ball said he was not opening a case of gross brutality against the accused at all, it was a case of a strong man using improper violence to a boy. Owens, in his evidence, said he was now 16 years old, and entered the Orphanage in 1893. He narrated the circumstances under which the aasiult was committed, his evidence being similar to that adduced before the Royal Commission at Nelson. The Uourt adjourned till to-morrow, accused being admitted to bail.