PEPPER THROWN IN FACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 175, 26 July 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

PEPPER THROWN IN FACE.

POSTMAN FAKES MAIL ROBBERY.

Convicted at the Old Bailey of stealing a postal packet containing £134, and stated to have staged a robbery and thrown pepper in his own face, William Arthur Lovelock (42), a postman driver, was sentenced to three years' penal servitude. A second count of inciting another postman driver to steal, a mail-bag was not left to the jury. Lovelock was said by the prosecution to have staggered into a post ornce at Seven Kings with pepper on his face, aiid told a. story of being attacked by a man he caught robbing his van. The letter containing the 134 £1 notes which h« should have taken to the llford postmaster was missing. His story was not accepted and he was "arrested. After he had been bailed the letter intact was sent to the postmaster. , > • Lovelock, giving evidence, said that.when he went to take the parcels to his .van from the Aldborough Road post ofhee he saw a man stepping off the running-board with the satchel containing the registered letters. "I immediately dropped my. parcels," he continued, "made a grab at the satchel, and shouted for help as loud as I possibly could. I felt a slight blow in the face, and was partially blinded by what turned out to be pepper. I snatched tl e satchel and went back to the post ofhee. Lovelock agreed he was. not searched on the evening of the robbery. Asked by the Recorder to demonstrate his cry when he was attacked. Lovelock shouted "Help' in a voice that rang through the court. "That seems loud enough for anyone to have' heard unless he was very deaf," comnrentcd Mr. Clarke, prosecuting. V