NEIGHBOURS IN COURT DISPUTE
BOUND OVER FOR ASSAULT AT EVESHAM
A fracas between members of two Wickhamford families had a sequel in Evesham Police Court on Monday when charges of alleged assault and wilful damage were heard.
George Sutton, aged 54, of Pitcher’s Hill, Wickhamford, was summoned by Mrs. Eva Dolphin, of Pitcher’s Hill, Wickhamford, for assault, for using threats, and for wilful damage to a window amounting to 7s. 6d.
There were cross-summons for assault brought by Sutton against Eva Dolphin.
Mrs. Dolphin said she ran a road-side stall near her husband’s land at Wickhamford and Sutton also had a stall. For some time past she had had to complain several times of Sutton’s behaviour. On September 9, as she was at her stall, Sutton came up on his dray and, drawing across the road, he threw a stick at her and hit her across the neck. About ten minutes later Sutton came back on foot.
“He came towards me, swinging his hands about,” she said, and I told him to go away, but he struck me again with a stick. My husband came out and Sutton knocked him down.
SEIZED A FORK
“I turned round and snatched up a fork, thinking to give him something to go on with, but he took it from me and hit me on the head with it. When I came to my senses, there was my husband and Sutton, fighting in the gutter.
Mrs. Dolphin said she went out afterwards, and Sutton shouted, “I’ll murder you, you ---------,” and chased her through the orchard.
[A long report of the evidence given by witnesses follows (including by Mrs. Gladys May Cox), but in the end the Bench dismissed the case against Sutton of wilful damage and decided to bind over Mrs. Dolphin and Sutton for 12 months each. The parties were ordered to pay their own costs. The charge of alleged threats against Sutton was contained in the justice’s decision.]