FIGHT WITH BURGLAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

FIGHT WITH BURGLAR.

DETECTIVE'S REMINISCENCES.

A London detective's fight in the dark with a burglar who broke into the County Hall, Westminster, and ;l year or so later, was hanged for murder, is recalled by the promotion of Detective-Sergeant Rees to inspector in charge at Tottenham Court Road, London. Inspector Rees was at that time attached to the Flying Squad, and, having seen suspects near the County Hall, he and other officers quietly took up positions inside, sitting in total darkness.

Shortly after midnight the burglar, Frederick Stewart, and a confederate, forced a window in the actual room where Rees was waiting with a colleague. Rees jumped up suddenly when the men were inside, and n*ide a grab at them, but when the lights were switched on, after a grim struggle, it was found that Stewart had vanished.

There are 4Vs miles of corridors in the great building, and it took the detectives two hours to explore them. Stewart was eventually found hiding under boilers in the lower basement.

After serving his sentence he left prison, and a week later shot and fatally wounded Mr. A. Webb, the occunier of a flat in Pembridge Square W. Stewart, a bookmaker's clerk, was hanged on the morning of Call Boy's Derby, and his only regret was that he could not hear the result of the race.