SECOND TRIAl.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 38, 15 February 1939, Page 5

SECOND TRIAl.

RANGATAUA FIGHT I j ALLEGED USE OF KNIFE ; The second trial ot .John Ensoii ! Briggs, labourer, aged 20, who is j charged on three counts of assaulting ‘ David N. T. Garvan, at Rangataua, lon October 29 last, was begun in the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday and will not finish until to-day. The jury in the first case disagreed. The indictment is one of three counts, the first charging the accused with wounding Garvan with intent to do grievous bodily harm, the seci ond with assaulting Garvan ano | causing bodily harm, and the tmra • with causing Garvan actual bodilj ’ harm in such circumstances that if • death had been caused the accused i would have been guilty of man- . slaughter. His Honour, Mr. Justice Reed, pre- ' sided. Mr. N. R. Bain, Crown Prose- ' cutor at Wanganui, appeared for the I Crown, and Mr. J. Hussey, also of i Wanganui, for the accused. The jurors hearing the second trial are: Messrs. Robert W. Orton (foreman), Walter Mutimer, Melville A. | Winter, Olaf M. Larsen, Albert Foo- | ter, Donald Frost, Charles Overenu, ' Colin Belfit, Arthur J. Chapman, James P. Coyle, Clarence F. Clark, and Raymond Mitchell. Fight on Vacant Section. The case centred round a fight which occurred at Rangataua during a dance on October 2u. it has been alleged by the Crown that accused, after having had liquor, abused Garvan and that the two of them repaired to a vacant section and iougAt, and that Garvan had come out from the section to his mates, who were standing on the footpath, saying: “I’m not going back in there; 1 tiiinK i he’s got a knife.” Medical evidence ■ showed that Garvan had a small in- | cised wound in the upper right arm. This could be probed to a depth of an 1 inch. He was also slightly wounded lon the left forefinger and had a i scratch on his neck. It was shown, I and the fact stressed by the defence, ! that the vacant section on which the i tight took place was one on which a ! building had been burnt down aim I there was rubbish on it, including I broken beer bottles. | Evidence led by the Crown in the second trial was along the same lines I as that heard in the first. This was I published yesterday. Mr. Bain (to Dr. W. J. Feltham): Having regard to the nature of the 1 wound ana its position in the arm, could you say whether it could have I been caused by a broken bottle, by falling on it?—lt is not very likely. When Detective-Sergeant J. K. Robertson was giving evidence, Mr. Hussey asked whether he had any ot the broken bottles, and witness produced some jagged pieces which he said had been lound on the vacant section where the fight took place Witness said that he nad had an opportunity of looking at the files since the day before and it was not correct to say that the taking of the statement from the accused had occupied four hours, it took about an hour and a-half. Questioned as to whether the question put to the accused that he had stabbed Garvan had put the suggestion of stabbing into the accused’s mind, Detective-Sergeant Robertson said that the allegation was that Garvan had been stabbed. Mr. Hussey: That allegation was made by you?—Not by me in the first place, but by Garvan s father. Witness said that accused was quite satisfied in his own mind that Garvan had been stabbed, and his own words were that he did not know what with. Denied Having a Knife. His Honour: He denied having a knife? —Yes. All along he denied having a knife on the night of the dance. The hearing of evidence finished yesterday and Mr. Hussey’s address and His Honour’s summoning up will be taken this morning.