DAMAGED 'PHONE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 214, 10 September 1934, Page 3

DAMAGED 'PHONE.

MAN IN SLOT CABINET. BOLT FROM CONSTABLE. SUSPECT SENT FOR TRIAL. A labourer, liaymond Trevor Child, aged 27, appeared before Mr. W. P. MeKcan, S.M., i:i the Police Court this mornlnj;, charged with attempting to steal certain property from the Post-master-General, and with being a rogue and vagabond, in that, being a suspected person, he frequented the telephone cabinet and Old Mill Road, adjacent to the cabinet, with a felonious intent. Mr. Hall Skelton appeared for accused, who denied both charges. Senior Detective Hall prosecuted. Evidence that the slot machine in the telephone cabinet at the corner of Old Mill Koad and Garnett Road, Grey Lynn, was in good order when he examined it at 10 a.m. on August 15, was given by Frank Farmiloc, of the Post and Telegraph Department. Witness said he next inspected tlie cabinet tlie following day at 1 p.m. and found that an attempt had been made to prise open the lid. William George Leland, inquiry officer employed at the Chief Post Office, said he accompanied Constable Ross on the night motor car patrol on August 1(5. It was their duty to keep telephone cabinets under observation, as several had been forced open recently. At 12.-15 a.m. ho saw a man walk briskly from the telephone cabinet to the edge of tlie footpath and look up and down tlie street. At 1.10 a.m. he and.Constable Ross returned to the slot i,nachine and saw the same man still tiierc. Witness walked into a dark spot to watch, and saw this man put his head out and look both ways. Two minutes later, Constable Irioss, who was also in hiding, approached the box, witness following him. Saw Constable Chasing Him. "I have no doubt that the man I saw in the box on the two occasions was Child," added witness. "I heard the constable draw Child's attention to the damaged condition of the machine in the cabinet. The cabinet was prised open half-way along the top and the microphone cord was damaged. Child denied that he was responsible. He objected to being searched, and said he would submit to a search at the police station. I then left to get the motor car, which was parked about 300 yards away. When I was driving back to the telephone cabinet a few minutes later I saw Child running along Wcllpark Avenue with Constable Ross chasing him." Leland added that he attended an identification parade at the police station on August 21, and from a line of 10 men he picked out Child as the man who had been in the telephone box and who had run away from the constable. Corroborative evidence was given by Constable Ross, who said that he asked Child if lie was lowt. He said that lie was lost and that lie could not ring up as the machine was out of order. He denied being responsible for the damaged machine. After Leland went to get the car Child began to walk away. Witness told him to wait and caught hold of his coat sleeve, but Child broke away. Refused to be Interviewed. Detective C. Bclton said that oil August 21, with Detective Gillum, he saw accused at his home. Child refused to be interviewed. Child's homo was iu tho same sumirb as the telephone cabinet and less than a half mile distant from it. Detective Sergeant Thompson, of Hamilton, was called to prove accused's list of previous convictions, while Constables Johnston and Snow gave evidence of various convicted persons with whom they had seen the accused on prior occasions. Child pleaded not guilty to both charges. On the second charge he was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. The hearing of the first charge was deferred until ho has been dealt with by the Higher Court. Bail was allowed.