THEFT FROM CHURCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 32, 7 February 1934, Page 10

THEFT FROM CHURCH.

ESCAPED PRISONER'S OFFENCE. HIS STORY DISBELIEVED. ''If two people join together to commit a dishonest act with a common purpose they are both equally culpable. In the case of burglary, for instance, if one man is keeping watch outside while the- other breaks into the house he is a party to the act," said Mr. V. M. Hubble, for the Crown, when two men were charged before Mr. Justice Smith, at the Supreme Court, yesterday, with breaking and entering and theft at Oratia last September.

The accused were Harris O'Xeill and George Eden Charles Hayward, who were each charged with breaking into the Undenominational Church at Oratia and stealing a silver Communion cup and silver cruet, valued at £1. There was an alternative charge against O'Neill of the theft of the articles, and against • Hayward of receiving them. O'Neill pleaded not guilty but Hayward admitted the charges and was remanded for sentence.

O'Neill conducted $iis own defence. y Mr. Hubble said that the church was locked on Sunday, September 14, and the following Saturday the interior,was discovered in disorder. The Communion cup and cruet were missing, while the altar cloth was cut in two. Cups and a sugar basin in the church had been used. On them finger prints were found which tallied with those of the two accused. Both men had been arrested in King George Avenue, Epsom, and in Haywood's possession was found the two articles. When a domestic who had discovered that the church had been broken into was giving evidence O'Neill submitted a plan of the building to her. He explained to his Honor that he did not intend to deny being in .the building, but he would emphatically deny the theft or that he committed sacrilege. The part of the church where he was, O'Neill contended, was like any ordinary school building. Accused made a statement from the witness-box and said that he and his fellow-prisqnpr had sheltered in the church for the night. He denied all knowledge of the theft, and said that he was first aware of it when the articles were found by the police in Haywanl's possession. Tp Mr. Hubble he admitted that he had been sentenced in November last to five years' imprisonment. The jury, after a. short retirement, returned a verdict of guilty.on the. major charge of breaking and entering and theft. Accused was remanded for sentepco.