SUSPICION ONLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 173, 23 July 1936, Page 18

SUSPICION ONLY.

THEFT CHARGE FAILS.

VALUABLE MODEL AEROPLANE

JTJBGE DIRECTS JURY. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., Wednesday. Directed by Mr. Justice Blair at the conclusion of the Crown's case to return a verdict of not guilty, the jury hearing the charge of theft against John Edward Owens, an American, aged 41, in the Supreme Court to-day, acted accordingly. Accused had been charged with stealing at Palmerston North a model aeroplane valued at £30, the property of Mrs. Isobel Dora McGregor.

The chief witness, Mrs. McGregor, the widow of Squadron-Leader M. C. McGregor, stated that accused called at her house and said.he was "Mr. Owens, of the Knickerbocker Hospital," and a cousin of Captain Turner, the American aviator. He further represented that he was connected with the American wrestlers at present in New Zealand, and said they were prepared to stage a benefit bout for her and Mrs. Fraser, widow of "Scotty" Frascr, the parachutist. . He asked for photographs of her husband, arid she arranged to" get copies from a friend. Accused was to return and collect them. Accused returned at 10 o'clock, and said he could not wait. He asked if he could take away for the purpose of obtaining a photograph a model of a D.H. 8(5 airliner. She consented, accused promising to return it later that morning. The model was returned by H. C. Walker, who had been co-pilot with her husband in the Melbourne Centenary air race.

Said Sister Had Made Model. Henry Campbell Walker, aviation officer for an oil company, told the Court that after seeing Mrs. McGregor he started off for Milsom aerodrome, and on the way lie met accused. He asked him where he had obtained the model aeroplane in his possession, and accused replied that his sister had made it, whereupon witness told Owens that he knew all about the matter and asked that the model be handed over. Owens had been drinking, and had half a bottle of whisky with him, but he was not drunk.

Constable-G. E. Chapman said that in a statement accused said he arrived in New Zealand in 1928 as a stowaway. He admitted having gone to Mrs. McGregor's place, but claimed that he had been so drunk that he did not remember what happened inside the house, but he remembered coming outside with the model aeroplane and a photograph in his possession.

This concluded the case for the Crown, whereupon his Honor adjourned the Court'for a short interval so that he could confer with counsel.

When the Court resumed his Honor told the jury that when the judge came to the conclusion that a case was only one of suspicion, and in his opinion was not sufficient to go to the jury, it was his duty so to direct, the jury. "So far as this case is concerned," his Honor proceeded, "it is at the most a case of suspicion. There are cireumstaees about it which are distinctly in accused's favour. We cannot look at matters which are not in evidence:" 'In this case, it seems, it is my duty to direct you that there is not sufficient evidence to pall upon the defence to answer the charge. I ask you to take my direction. I have discussed the matter with counsel, and the Crown Prosecutor agrees with me that this course is the proper one."