FIRST WARRANT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 144, 20 June 1934, Page 8

FIRST WARRANT.

EXECUTION AT BAYLY'S. "NOTHING INCRIMINATING FOUND" A minute description of the execution of the first, search warrant at Bayly s place on October 21 was then given by Mr. Nortlicroft. Counsel pointed out to the jury that a search warrant could not be obtained until someone had been before a justice of the peace and sworn that there was the gravest suspicion against the person for whom the search warrant was being issued. It was plain, then, the police were seeking at all costs material that would incriminate Bayly, and they were neglecting inquiry in other directions. Under that first search warrant, Bayly's trousers were taken, and counsel submitted to the jury that only a trifling amount of blood was found on them. Any one of the jurymen who had done odd jobs around his home with the took of a carpenter would know that it was an easy matter to knock the skin off one's hands, or a little blood could be got on the clothing while comforting a child that had cut itself. again, on the sledge boards, there were only microscopic traces of blood. But the police thought they were • now getting what they wanted. What significance could be attached to the tiny spots of blood on the trousers and the tiny smear on the sledge board? "At this stage," declared Mr. Northcroft, "Bayly must have known that the police were suspecting him. He knew thdt they had searched his dip for the body of Samuel Lakey and that they had taken boards from his sledge. He must have known that they, suspected he carried on his sledge the dripping body of Lakey. Yet, knowing this, and, if he is the criminal the Crown alleges, knowing that there were bones in his garden, the' lighter in the sheep dip, and the watch parts under his car shed, he quietly goes off to Auckland in pursuance of a prior arrangement. If Bayly is the criminal, knowing these things, so unconcerned is he that he goes off to Auckland and makes not the slightest effort to remove -this incriminating evidence." The day following, continued Mr. Nortlicroft, the Crown alleged that a cartridge case fell from his pocket, but Chief Detective Sweeney had put it quite fairly and had stated that the shell had fallen when .the trousers were picked up. It must be quite obvious to the jury that the shell could not fall out of a poiket. "Not a Drop of Blood." "The most striking incident of the execution of this first search warrant," Mr. Nortlicroft maintained, "was that the police took practically every stitch of clothing that Bayly could have worn 1 on the Sunday they assume he burnt the' body of Lakey. _ Not one drop of blood I I was found on his oilskins, nor on his 1

boots, and if Bayly had handled a body, as the Crown alleged, it would have been a physical impossibility not to get blood on his clothing. And 1 suggest now that if they had found blood 011 that clothing at .that time they would have arrested Bayly out of hand." After touching briefly 011 the finding of the bone ash on Bayly's shovel and pointing out that it could have been easily covered up by shovelling cowdung, Mr. Northcroft turned again to the finding of the guns in Bayly's swamp. There was one interesting and important circumstance regarding the finding of the guns. Although the police executed that search warrant on October 21, they found no trace of the guns. When this group of very dili- | gent police officers went over to Bayly's with a search warrant, they carried* out their search with the utmost thoroughness and looked into every conceivable , place, but they could find nothing in--1 criminating of any sort. The Crown would say that the police did not find the guns because they were in the swamp. But counsel suggested that the guns were not in the swamp on October 21. "These guns were found on October 30," Mr. Northcroft continued, "and police officers have said that when they were taken out of the swamp they were bright and shiny, and free from tarnish, and that they had not been there long. His Honor: What evidence is there that the guns were not in the swamp on October 21? Mr. Northcroft: There is abundant evidence. His Honor: I woul.l like you to point to the passage. Mr. Northcroft: Fi'om the evidence which has been given, as a matter of inference— His Honor: You have definitely asserted to the jury that the guns were not there on the 21st. Mr. Northcroft: Ah no, sir. I have — His Honor: You can ask the jury to draw inferences from the evidence, but you cannot assert that the guns were not there. Mr. Northcroft then invited the jury to the conclusion that the guns were not in the swamp ou October 21. When the police had found them there they did not stop and think. They jumped to the conclusion that it was Bayly, who had put them there. Police Confidence. "Another matter I wish to refer to is the utmost confidence in the way the police proceed with their theory against (lie suggestion that they wire on a false scent. The police brought forward a sinister import when Bayly expressed surprise that his ammunition had gone from his shed. If he was again putting them on a false scent, why should 110 confine himself to making out that his ammunition had gone? Why shouldn't lie throw his rifle away? Consider the disappearance of the ammunition as you will. I submit, there is no possible view which the Crown can put concerning his disposing of it. "I put it to you that the police were taking a most innocent circumstance and trying to divert it- towards their preconceived view of Bayly's guilt. This ■U. one of the dangers that necessarily follows when the police jump to conclusions.:.. When they jump to conclusions the police mind is not receptive to other ideas, and they do not pursue other ideas. When the guns were discovered quite fresh in the.swamp they should have looked eV-ewlierc. The ammunition did not assist Bayly out of hir difficulties, and I am going to ask you to believe that it really supports Ills frankness and his innocence." Mr. Northcroft went on to criticise the police, stating that they made not the slightest effort to find the ammunition, neither did they exam'ne neighbouring farmers' places. Tie said that the police regarded the whole incident as a fairy tale fold l>y Bayly, and made 110 effort, to follow up what was nn important-: clue pointing to the intrusion of someone about Bayly's farm for an improper purpose. Referring to the finding of the benzine drum, upon which the police placcd a sinister interpretation, counsel said the police ignored what Furniss told them, that it had been used for a legitimate purpose. Bayly's Nerve Goes. Describing the second search warrant executed 011 Bayly's home, counsel said that the police took all those things that contained pig's blood, while they also made a thorough search of his correspondence. "Then, after all that, is it any wonder that Bayly's nerve goes and. when apparently distraught he writes a letter to his wife indicating suicide and he wanders off and enters the office of his solicitors in Auckland?" said counsel. "This also is presented with a sinister aspect. The police say he was located in Auckland. Again they are unable to state it fairly. His solicitors rancr the police. The explanation of Bayly's going away was given quite differently. It was said lie had gone away because of the finding of the firrm. Can anything be more grotesque? Baylv. knew what the police knew, that no significance was attached to this drum. Yet on the scantiest of material, the Crown tries to justify the conclusion to which they had come."