SENSATIONAL STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 281, 27 November 1931, Page 7

SENSATIONAL STORY.

ROBBERY AND ASSAULT

CHARGE.

"PARTY" AT BEMUERA

ALLEGED "DUMPING" OF MAN,

Sensational evidence was given in the Police Court yesterday afternoon when two men were charged with robbery with violence and assault, causing actual bodily harm. The accused "were Eddie Phillips (22), a taxi driver, and Harold Fred Winstone (42), an agent, and the charges were that at Auckland on November 12 they robbed Richard Grimshaw of £8, using personal violence, and also that they assaulted Grimshaw so as to cause actual bodily harm. Mr. F. IC. Hunt, S.M., was on the Bench. In the early part of his evidence, which was published in yesterday's issue, Grimshaw told the Court how he had given two girls a lift to Auckland on the way from Frankton, how he had met the two accused at an eating-house in Victoria Street, how he, the two accused and three girls had gone to Winstone's house in Remuera for a "party," and how he had been assaulted. Continuing his evidence Grimshaw said that when he found himself in the middle of the road early the following morning he was in a very bad way. He was "battered to pieces," his nose bleeding, his eyes puffed and his left leg injured, so that he was unable to walk.. His chest was black and he had bruises up the back. He had not counted his money before the party, but he estimated that about £6 had been stolen from him. "Picked Up on the Road." In answer to counsel for accused, Grimshaw said that the two girls he had picked up near Mercer for the ride to Auckland had introduced him to their parents as, "Dick, a. fellow they had picked up on the road," The two cups of beer that he had drunk at Winstone's house in Remuera just before he had been hit on the jaw had been handed to him by one of the girls. He did not remember saying during the evening that' the girls were "nothing but golddiggers." Evidence of how she and her sister had been given a lift to Auckland in a taxi hired by Grimshaw, and of the events which led up to the two accused, Grimshaw and three girls going to Winstone's house in Remuera was given by a young married woman from the South, whose name the magistrate ordered to be suppressed. "We thought we were being taken to a party, but when •we got there there was no party at all," she said. Grimshaw's dog Oko had been with them in the taxi. At Winstone's house Grimshaw had had more drink than the others. She did not drink, but to be sociable she had taken a small glass of beer. In the kitchen a fight had started between Grimshaw and Winstone. Grimshaw had made to hit Winstone, but before he could do so Phillips had hit him. When Grimshaw fell across the table witness had gone outside and sat in the taxi for about two hours. Fighting and Moaning. While she was in the taxi, continued witness, Phillips had come out' to get whisky and had said that the quarrel had been made up. Later she heard the noise of more fighting and a sound of

moaning. The accused came out to the taxi and told witness to get out, as they were going to "dump" Grimshaw. The two accused, followed by Grimshaw, then came out and went away in the taxi. Winstone and Phillips returned about ten minutes later and witness overheard a remark that "they might be had up for manslaughter." The accused said they had "dumped" Grimshaw. Previously, said witness, she had noticed blood on the kitchen table._ She had also noticed that a carpet in a small hall had been freshly washe - There was blood around the floor a also on the kitchen floor. ?, 001^ = a j , Tl j the two accused returned wi " t the two other girls the home of the-girlTrbphadbeeapiCKea up after leaving the eafcin o At tlrfs stesre $00"™ until this afternoon. Bail of £-00 wa» allowed. .