Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 8. 1966.

[introduction]

Christchurch.-In a surprise decision Mr. H. R. Evans, Sm, discharged without conviction Bruce Edward Jesson, secretary of the Committee to Oppose Royal Tours, after a senior police officer admitted he had denied him a fundamental legal right.

Jesson had only to pay costs and £10 restitution after his two accomplices in antiRoyalty slogan painting and each been fined £40. restitution and costs.

Interests in the case rose sharply after the police inspector told the court he had refused Jesson the right to ring counsel and that political prejudice may have influenced the arrest and subsequent three days jailing of Mr. Jesson.

Mr. Evans. Sm. said the prosecution case had been factually proven on the two charges Jesson stood trial on. Two other charges against him—Jesson pleaded not guilty on all counts—were withdrawn by the Crown. These were the charges to which his companions had pleaded guilty and for which they had been fined by Mr. K. H. J. Headifen. Sm. at an earlier hearing.

After the evidence had been heard on the Thursday Mr. Evans reserved his decision to the following Monday