ASSAULT ON A CONSTABLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 184, 14 November 1910, Page 8

ASSAULT ON A CONSTABLE

STREET MELEE AT PORT CHALMERS By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Saturday Night. A brutal attack on a constable towards yesterday evening at Port Chalmers resulted in two firemen, William Mulcahey and Charles Riley, from the steamer Kia Ora, being heavily penalised this morning. The constable saw the two firemen going up the street, one carrying ■ a bundle very suggestive of uncustomed goods. He asked the bearer to come to the police station to have the bundle examined. The fireman and the constable were proceeding down the street quietly, when Ridley rushed into a public house, and brought out seven or eight other firemen. This pack attacked the constable, who lost charge of his man with the suspicious bundle, but succeeded in arresting Ridley, who headed the attack. Several young men belonging to the town came to the constable's assistance, otherwise he would have been more severely handled, kicking and punching: being the mode of attack. When the constable went out after locking tip Ridley, a melee was in progress. The constable tackled one of the worst offenders, but was knocked down and dazed by a blow on the side of the head by Mulcahey's clenched fist. The prisoners escaped, but Mulcahey was arrested. Mr. Asher, J.P., fined Mulcahey £5, in default three months' imprisonment, for assaulting the constable, and £5 or three months' for obstructing him, the sentences to be concurrent. Ridley was penalised in similar amounts.