Woman screamed, then—
BELMONT'S NIGHT OF BEDLAM
Arnold Patrick Pittick and William K. Munochen used to be neighbors.
But then —
(a) An old man asked William to ring for a policeman.
(b) A woman screamed.
(c) William ran down Great Eastern-highway in his bare feet.

From that point on there was no friendship. Or if there was it degenerated
rapidly — and violently.
Other people became involved. Lawyers were consulted and witnesses aligned on one side or the
other. There were postponements but magistrate T. A. Draper heard about the matter, eventually, in Perth Police Court this week. Pittick, a laboratory assistant, of Coode-street, South Perth, charged Munachen, a public servant, of Great Eastern-highway, Belmont, with unlawful assault. Pittick was represented by lawyer Mr. A. B. Walton, Munachen by Mr. G. E. Ferrier.
Between them they told of a night which was possibly the most exciting and certainly the noisiest in suburbian Belmont's recent history. Pittick, rosy-cheeked, plump-faced with wavy brown hair and neat blue suit, told the court that he had been involved in domestic differences with his wife and was no longer living with her.
On the night of April 17 he visited her in Great Eastern-highway, Belmont, hoping to effect a
reconciliation. He talked with her for two hours then, about 11.30, left to pick up two nurses at Claremont Mental Hospital. His wife had said she wished to speak to one of them, a Miss McGair.
He left the women in the car in Belmont and went into the house to talk to his wife again. It was a few minutes after midnight. His wife was excited and her voice was loud. When he told her that Miss McGair was in the car outside, his wife ran out of the house shriek-ing: "Mr. and Mrs. Coffey (neighbors) come here. Dad, come here — I've got all the evidence I need," Pittick added, "She was screeching and screaming and making a tremendous row as she pranced about on the footpath near the car."
Witness said that he got some of his clothes and books from the house and took them out to the
car. He was putting them in the back seat when — "I felt a pair of arms round my neck and I was thrown to the ground. "I tried to defend myself. I realised it was Mr. Munachen."

RIBS CRACKED

According to Pittick's story the brawl was a beauty. He said that he had been hurt when Munachen had fallen on top of him and that his face had been scratched and his ribs cracked. Dr. Boyd Buttsworth, of Great Eastern-highway, Rivervale, said he had treated Arnold Pittick on April 18 and found that he had two cracked ribs.
Next witness was Miss McGair. Tall, slim, most attractive in a close fitting grey costume, she spoke softly with some embarrassment. She said that she had met Arnold Pittick at her friend Mrs. McCann's place. On April 17 she accompanied Pittick and Mrs. McCann to Belmont. She then told her version of the fight.
William Munachen claimed that anything he had done on the night of April 17 and the morning of
April 18 was to prevent a breach of the peace.
He was a married man and he lived in harmony with his wife, he said. He had lived next to Mrs. Pittick since 1948. He had known of domestic differences between Mrs. Pittick and her husband Arnold. He, himself, was on "off-hand" terms with Pittick. Witness said that he had gone to bed about 11.45 p.m. on April 17. Earlier in the night he had been asked to ring the police by Mrs. Pittick's father, so when he heard screams coming from Mrs. Pittick's house a few minutes after midnight he wasted no time. "I pulled on my trousers and rushed into the street," he told the court. "I ran up the street in my bare feet. "I saw Mrs. Pittick standing at the side of the car trying to open the door. "I could see two figures in the car and I thought that Pittick must have been trying to take the children away. I knew he had threatened to.
"I grabbed Pittick, who was on the driver's side, round the elbows so that he could not use his arms to open the car door. "Mrs. Pittick kept screaming at me to open the door, so I swung Pittick round and then dodged round the car to Mrs. Pittick. "Pittick was still on his feet. "I opened the door for Mrs. Pittick and when I saw that it was not the children inside— I saw the red cape of a nurse's uniform. I said to Mrs. Pittick, 'This has nothing to do with me.' "Just then I received a blow on the shoulder from Pittick, who had come round behind me." Witness admitted that happenings after that were confused but decidedly hostile. He remembered falling through the fence on top of Mr. Pittick, but said that most of the time he had been trying to break off the fight or to protect himself. He had punched at Pittick only when Pittick had kicked him in the leg, he said.
In finding Munachen guilty of assault Magistrate Draper said: "It was not serious. There was nothing brutal about it. It was a storm in a domestic tea-cup." He did not record a conviction. Costs were awarded to Pittick.