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From the Kent and Sussex Courier, Friday 20 November 1925.
Assault cases dismissed.
Mrs. Alice Lee, Blackshall Farm Huts, near Seal, was summoned for
assaulting Cissy Jelly, on October 31st, and the former's husband
summoned each of the following for assault on the same date. - Walter
Jelly, Blackhall Huts, labourer; his wife, Cissie Jelly; John, Blackhall
Lane, builder's foreman; Albert Reffard, Blackhall Lane; and Alfred
Dunmer, Blackhall Lane, both builder's labourers.
Mrs. Lee pleaded guilty, and the others all not guilty. The two Reffards
and Dunmer were represented by Mr. W. H. House.
James Lee said that about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, 31st March, he and Mr.
and Mrs. Jelly came down the road together from Godden Green, where they
had visited the "Bucks Head," towards the huts, and on the way they
started an argument about the price of stone. He and the other man lost
their tempers, and when they arrived at the huts Jelly pulled his coat
off and knocked him down, and his wife kicked him whilst he was on the
ground. When he got up he could not see, and he could not tell the Court
exactly what damage they had done to him. He went inside the hut, and
then the Reffards and Dunmer appeared on the scene. He heard his wife
say something to them, and he came out and found them kicking his wife.
She fell down two or three times. He pulled her away, and the three men
then set on to him, and he knew nothing afterwards. He heard one of them
say "We shall have to take him to hospital." He washed the blood off his
face and head, which was badly cut, but his eyes were closed and he
could not see for two days afterwards. He could not say whether the men
used any instruments or merely their fists. He had seen them before, but
never spoken to them. They were working on the building opposite.
Witness alleged that the men had been in the habit of visiting some
young women there.
Cross-examined:- He admitted that the chopper produced belonged to him,
and that it was taken away from his wife because she was chasing Mrs.
Jelly with it, but it could not say whether she struck her with it. He
knew that Mrs. Jelly had a cut thumb, however.
Mr. House:- I suggest the men came in when they heard screaming to stop
your wife, and she went for Reffard because he was taking the chopper
away from her. Then they stopped you and that constituted the assaults?
They stopped me in a funny way, then.
Did someone exclaim "Mind he's got an iron bar?
I had no bar.
Mrs. Lee said she was in bed when her husband shouted to his dog. When
she came out he said "Come and take some of these men off me," and she
picked up the first thing she could get hold of, the chopper, but she
did not have time to use it before she was knocked on the ground. She
have found all the men on top of her husband, kicking and booting him
about. Mrs. Jelly tried to get hold of the chopper, and must have drawn
her thumb across it.
Cross-examined:- She had not seen the three men before. She denied she
was chasing Mrs. Jelly with the chopper when they came along.
Mr. House:- You are trying to remember something that did not happen,
and to make up a story with your husband about it?
No.
She added she did not hear the rpw between her husband and Jelly.
Mr. House pointed out that her evidence flatley contradicted that of
Lee.
P.C. Westmore said that on the morning Monday evening following Lee came
to him and said he had been knocked about on Saturday night at Pain's
Huts. His face was one mass of bruises and his eyes almost closed,
whilst there was a cut across the head about two inches long. He knew
nothing against Reffard and his son or Dunmer. The first named was
foreman for a well-known firm of builders.
John Reffard stated that he and the other two all lived together in a
hut at Blackhall Lane. They have been to Sevenoaks that night and went
home by Seal and the golf links. As they were coming down Blackhall Lane
he heard a woman screaming murder, and when they reached the point
opposite the huts they found a man sitting on the bank, seemingly dazed.
It was Jelly. They asked him what the trouble was, and he told witness
he had been chased out of the huts by Lee, and Mrs. Lee was chasing his
wife with a chopper. Witness walked in the gate and met the two women.
Mrs. Lee was behind with the chopper, which he took from her. Lee came
for him, and his son stopped him. Witness laid hands on no one, except
Mrs. Lee, in depriving her of the chopper. He added that both his son
and he were married and they did not know any young women. They have
been to the huts before. He told his son to fetch the car, and they took
Mrs. Jelly to the doctor.
Albert Renard corroborated, declaring he had been to the huts only once
before, and that was to get water. Lee went for his father, and Dunmer
and he stopped him. He was bleeding terribly, and he evidently had been
in trouble previously.
Dunmer said there was no truth in Lee's story, although he admitted
striking him one in defence of his friend. It was not true they were all
on top of Lee or his wife.
Jelly gave evidence that on their return from Godden Green he and Lee
started quarrelling, Lee striking him and witness returning the blow, and
knocking him down. In falling Lee was caught on some barbed wire, and
called out to his wife to fetch the chopper, which he did. Witnesses
wife came out to help him, and was struck with a chopper.
By Mr. House:- The other men did not arrive on the scene till his wife
was being struck with a chopper.
Mrs. Jelly, whose thumb was bandaged, said he heard screaming outside
and rushed out of the hut. Lee had called his wife to bring the chopper,
and she caught a blow from it. Not content with that, Mrs. Lee chased
her with it, and Lee also came after her. She heard the three men in the
lane and ran to them for help, thinking they were the police.
The cases were all dismissed, the Chairman remarking that there was not
a shred of evidence against the Reffards and Dunmer, who had no concern
in the dispute, and there was not the slightest justification for their
being summoned. No men in their position would have done what was
alleged. |
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