HIT WITH POKER.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1922, Page 4

HIT WITH POKER.

SON’S UNFILIAL CONDUCT. INCIDENT AT FITZROY. A man named William Harknett, aged 38, appeared in the Police Court at New Plymouth, yesterday morning, to answer a charge of having assaulted his father, William Harknett, by hitting him on the head with a poker. The occurrence, it was stated, took place at Fitzroy on Saturday. On the bench were Messrs. F. E. Wilson and A. R. Davies, J-'s.P. The father, who gave his occupation as a gardener, living m Devon Street, Fitzroy, stated in evidence that at about 11.45 on Saturday morning he was sitting at the kitchen table, when he heard the sound of an axe. Investigations showed that it was his son William, chopping up boxes which had been placed round some cucumber plants. Upon, his father remonstrating with him,. Harknett used abusive language, in the course of which he threatened to split his father’s head open with the axe. However, he contented himself with bringing the wood inside and picking up the poker, with which he hit his father over the head, causing a lump. A second attempt to hit him with the poker was avoided by the father, who went to a near-by store to telephone to the police. After consultation, the J.'s.P. convicted Harknett and ordered him to come up for sentence if called upon within three months.