THUGGISM ALLEGED.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 167, 20 August 1914, Page 9

THUGGISM ALLEGED.

CHARGES OF ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE. Two prisoners who came before Mr T. A. B. Bailey, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon, charged with robbery with violence (two such charges being preferred against one of them) contrived to take up the whole of the attention of the Court till past five o'clock, and showed a remarkable familiarity with police court form and some adroitness in the art of cross-examination. Each of the accused endeavoured to establish an alibi, but tooth were committed to the Supreme Court for trial, where '' twelve good men and true" will decide which side makes out the best case. The two men were John McCouville (alias McConnell) and William Brown (alias Anderson), and the principal witness in the charge.against them, was one Felix Hart, a labourer who came into the company of the two accused on the evening of August 7. He admitted having been a little "under the influence" when he met them outside a fish shop and asked them the way to the supper room. They directed him upstairs, where he had supper and came down again. He found his chance acquaintances in the street where he had left them, and one of them, with a tale of a bottle of whisky planted some- j where, lured him down Cashel' Street. But when they began to draw closer to him in the darker patches he became suspicious and, observing a right-of-way which led iu.o a back-yard of a house, he made an excuse to' his unwelcome escorts and made down it.. When he got into the yard he took the precaution of putting his money into one of his socks and came put again. The escort was still there, so he told them that he lived in the house and was going to bed. He turned bax;k, and they turned and ran after him, seizing hold of him and going through' his "pockets. ..' He struggled '' and the ' noise brought the inhabitants, of ,the house, who. ordered everyone to go" away. ,On hearing the : voices the adepts in' the art of first aid to the needy"obeyed'the order, an d" the occupied of the * house on" hearing Hart's tale, rang up the police.. A constable arrived, and as he and Hart came ont of the.lane two men wh%, were on the river bank started to run different ways. : They gave chase, and the constable was successful in running, one man to earth after a long chase. He was crouched in some bushes, and in his evidence he said that he 'knew nothing of the assault and had merely gone to sleep there. , ;; Formal evidence of arrest ami identification was given, and a lady-help in the house in which Hart found refuge gave evidence of having, witnessed the disturbance thsugh she was unable to distinguish the men. Brown cross-ex-amined! vigorously all the while; and combated every point. 'He mond Hopte, who said' he was a ;coinposer, to prove that he Avas in bed in a large r'oom shared by several"others in the "Don" boardinghouse at the hour when the assault was said to have been committed, but evidently Hope had made aii error, and had mistaken.another man with whom he had spoken that night for the accused/ Another witness, however, William McGuire, testified to having left Brown outside his boarding-house, and seen him enter, at about 10 p.m., an earlier hour than when the assault was said to have occurred. Both the accused elected to give evidence on their ' own behalf in order to prove alibis, and both, as said, were committed for trial, . bail ' being I allowed in each ease of two sureties of i£so. ; , . i John McConville was then charged [ with another similar offence. The ; chief witness for the proseceutidn in this case was Percy John Barber, a farm hand, whose story was to the 'effect that about 4.30 on the' afternoon of August 8, he was in the dive of the Empire Hotel with a friend of his named Highett. There the accused and another asked for a cigarette and were accommodated. The four had drinks together, and later McConville was further obliged with a loan. of. five shillings for a bed. Barber then' left the hotel with his friend and had" several more drinks, during the course of which he got a bit hazy about directions, lost Highett, and found himself at the railway station instead of the . People's Palace, which was his destination. On returning (this was somewhere near seven o 'clock in the evening) he; again met McConville and agreed to go with him while he paid ~a call on a lady. They eventually arrived at a house to which McConville had little knowledge of, for he didn't know how to get to the back entrance. . But fortunately, one of McConville's friends happened to arrive on the scene at this time and offered to take them to "a better place.'' So the trio wandered along in the direction of Sydenham, and after crossing the railway lise came •apon a vacant allotment with a tin shed on it. Here the guide pointed to a lighted window and said, '' There's the house,'' and as Barker looked up he was seized by the tkroat by one of..the men, while the other went through his pockets. On the approach .of some people the assailants ran, leaving Barber minus his cash, which amounted to about £3 5/-,' and his Post Office Savings Bank book. He walked back-to town, and at' about 9 o'clock i-efound his friend, too whom he told his tale. The police were informed and Barber later identified McConville as his decoyer from amongst a number of other men at the police station. W. C. Highett also identified the accused as the man they had met in the Empire dive, and evidence was given regarding the finding of the missing bank book in the yard of a drain pipe manufactory adjoining the vacant' section.. McConville was also committed for trial on this count and admitted to bail provided he could find one mere security for £IOO.