SUPREME COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 31, 7 February 1933, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

CHARGE OF ROBBERY.

JURY'S DISAGREEMENT. 1 A verdict of guilty of assault so as to cause bodjly harm was found by the ! jury in the case against Leslie John Walding, aged 24, hawker, and Claude Harold Miller, aged 21, fruiterer, who were charged at the Supreme Court yesterday with assaulting Eric George Oliver with intent to rob. Mr. Hall Skelton appeared for Walding and Mr. ' Schramm for Miller. The Crown evidence was to the effect that the two accused assaulted Oliver in Myers Park on the night of January 111 and tried to rob him. Mr. Justice Herdman, in summing up, said the case was quite simple, and he did not think the jury would have any difficulty in deciding on the evidence. The jury remained out the full time allowed —four hours —and then reported that they could not agree on the count of assault with intent to rob. They found both accused guilty of assault causing bodily harm. His Honor suggested that the Crown Prosecutor should consider whether he would ask for a new trial on tho charge of assault with intent to rob. The prisoners were remanded for sentence on that charge of which they had been found guilty. CHINESE FOUND GUILTY. A charge of breaking and entering the shop of a fellow countryman in Karangahape Road was denied by Fong Sang, aged 20, market gardener, and he also denied stealing £20 and a wristlet watch. A Crown witness stated that the day after the burglary the accused pawned the watch. ( Mr. Dyson, who defended the accused, remarked on the extreme rarity of crime among the Chinese, and said he had never heard of a charge of burglary against one of them. After the evidence was heard his Honor struck out the count for stealing £20, saying there was nothing to connect the accused with the theft. The jury found Sang not guilty of breaking and entering, but guilty of receivinc the watch, and he was I remanded for sentence.

GUILTY OF FRAUD. John Septimus Payne, a salesman, aged 41, was charged that about June 29, 1932, with intent to defraud, he, by a false pretence, induced E. H. Pointon to endorse a cheque for £55 in order that it could be used as a valuable security. Mr. V. N. Hubble prosecuted and Mr. I. H. Goldstine appeared for accused. After a retirement of 50 minutes, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy.