Woolwich Gazette, Saturday, 6 November, 1878.

Assault by Kicking.

Timothy Coleman, of Queen Street, was charged with violently assaulting Maurice Barrett, living at 3, Benmore Street, Deptford.

The complainant attended the courts with his head bandaged, and from the statement of the witnesses examined, it appeared that they both formed part of a gang of dock labourers, and that, on Saturday afternoon, there was a dispute about the sharing of money as wages. This, however, appeared to have been settled amicably, but on the the same evening a meeting was appointed to be held at the "King William IV" public house, Wellington Street, to raise money towards paying the funeral expenses of a daughter of a fellow workmen named Rogers, of Junction Road, Victoria Road, Deptford. The prisoner was chairman at this gathering, which the complainant attended, and in consequence of some disgraceful language he used in the presence of the prisoners wife and another female, who were in the room, and altercation and a fight ensued. The landlord put the complainant out at the front door, and the prisoner at the door at the rear of his house, that leading into Queen Street, where the prisoner lived. Shortly afterwards they met again, the complainant stating that when passing through Queen Street towards his own home the prisoner knocked him down and kicked him about the head and face. P.C. 239R finding complainant outside the door of the house at which prisoner resides, bleeding from a wound in the head. The prisoners wife was standing at the door, and as the complainant said he had been knocked down and kicked by a man who was in the house, he asked the wife if her husband was inside. She replied that he was not, but on going to the door the prisoner ran from behind it, and secured the door of a parlour against him, but on the arrival of the other two constables the room was entered, and he was taken into custody, going to the station quietly.

The defence raised was, that complainant had purposely entered Queen Street after their ejection from the public house, and that being drunk, as was also the prisoner, they fought, and complainant got kicked.

Mr Patterson imposed a fine of 20s, or 14 days' imprisonment.