"PEEPING TOM."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 233, 1 October 1932, Page 11

"PEEPING TOM."

MOUNT EDEN INCIDENT. YOUNG MAN ARRESTED. "BETTER SIGHT THAN A CAT." A "Peeping Tom" who asserted that he could see at night because he had better eight than a cat, appeared before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court this morning. Hβ was Norman William John James Rattray, aged 21, motor driver, and he was charged with breaking and entering a dwelling in Woodside Road, Mount Eden, on August 27 with intent to commit a crime. The police said no evidence would be offered on this charge, and DetectiveSergeant Kelly substituted another charge, of being found by night on enclosed premises without lawful excuse. To this Rattray pleaded guilty. "This young man has been inclined to look in windows," said counsel for Rattray. "Oh, he's one of those, is he," said the magistrate. Left For Work Early. Counsel: There is no evidence against him, but he inado a clean breast of everything to the detectives who arrested him yesterday. He leaves his home in Mount Eden early every morning in order to start work at 5 a.m. Once or twice, he says, he has tried to satisfy his curiosity by looking in windows. However, he had to spend last night in tho police cells and this caused him to be upset and to be in tears. It has been a dietinct shock to him and I think that a stern warning from your Worship would help him more than a conviction, at his age. He comes from a very decent family. Mr. Hunt eaid that Kattray probably required another six nights in the cells. Climbed Ladder To Bedroom. Detective-Sergeant Kelly eaid that at 4.30 a.m. on August 27, Rattray left home to go to work. "He works for a man who constructs pies. He called in at a house in Woodside Road, got a step-ladder from the back of the house, carried it round and placed it alongside the window of a bedroom where a young woman lay asleep. Climbing up the ladder, he put his hand underneath the bedclothes as if about to catch hold of the young woman. However, she quickly awoke and caught hold of his hand. He jumped down and escaped. He called back the next morning, but found the window locked." "I had a talk with Rattray," added Mr. Kelly. "He eaid he only wanted to . eee a. woman in bed. I told him he could not s-ee in a dark room at night, but he said he could see all right as he had better sight than a cat. (Laughter.) He also said that had he got in the bedroom, he might have committed a serious offence." The magistrate remanded Rattray for seven days, in custody, in order that a report from the probation officer might be obtained.