SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 14

SUPREME COURT

TRUE BILLS RETURNED BY GRAND JURY Four cases described by Mr Justice Northcroft as “hit and run motorist” cases were included in the total of five cases placed before a grand jury at the opening of the Supreme Court sessions yesterday. True bills were returned in all four cases, and also in the remaining case, of unlawful carnal knowledge. Carl Edward Jerman, Lessel McNaughton Adams, William Rupert Corliss, and Colin Stanley Shaw were each charged that, being the drivers of motor vehicles concerned in an accident in which someone was injured, they failed to stop after the accident. Albert Lawrence Stone was charged with unlawful carnal knowledge. His Honour, in his address to the grand jury, said it was somewhat dis-’ turbing to find no fewer than four “hit and run” cases on the list. He traversed the cases against Jerman and' Adams (reported elsewhere), and of the other accused. The case against Shaw concerned a woman who was knocked down by a motor-cyclist when she went out to board a tramcar at the intersection of Victoria street and Durham street. Bystanders took the number of the motor-cycle. Shaw admitted brushing against the woman, but said he did not know she was knocked down.

The case against Corliss concerned an elderly woman knocked down by a car near the Manchester street bridge. The number of the car was taken by bystanders, and it was later found outside a dance hall with accused in charge of it. Corliss had made no statement, but his companion in the car said they had started the evening by having drinks before a meal. He remembered the car swerving near the bridge, but had no knowledge of anyone being hit. The case against Stone concerned a girl under the age of 16. FAILURE TO STOP ALLEGED A charge of failing to stop after an accident in Lincoln road on May 17, when a cyclist, Henry Sunbeam, was injured, was heard against Lessel MeNaughton Adams, a market gardener,

hj. the Supreme Court yesterday before his Honour Mr Justice Northcroft. Dr. A. L. Haslam appeared for Adams, and Mr A. T. Donnelly prosecuted for the Crown. .

Mr Donnelly said that on May 17 about 6 p.m. Sunbeam was riding his bicycle near the Spreydon tram terminus when he was knocked down by a truck which drove on. The accident was seen by several persons. Accused was the owner of a similar light coloured Chevrolet truck. . The next day he took his truck into a garage for repairs to the radiator and headlamp. A quantity of headlamp glass was picked up on the scene of the accident. Glass of the same colouring and kind as this was found in and round accused’s garage. This had been fitted together and pieces from the garage fitted precisely in certain instances into the broken irregularities of pieces found on the scene of the accident. The Crown claimed that this showed beyond any doubt that accused’s lorry was the one concerned in the accident.

Henry Sunbeam said that he had left the Halswell Hotel on his bicycle and near the Spreydon tram terminus he was struck and remembered nothing more.

Eileen Agatha Jones said at 6.15 p.m. she saw a bicycle come from under a truck, which went on without stopping. The truck was light coloured, an old-fashioned model with a square cabin. She could not see the number.

Mary Noeline Haynes said she was waiting for a tram when she heard a crash. She saw the truck about 40 yards away. It appeared to be a light grey colour and went on after the accident. John Sampson, motor garage proprietor, said that on May 18 accused’s truck was brought in for repairs. The radiator was broken and the glass of the left headlamp was broken. Adams said he had damaged the truck by running into a gate. It seemed hardly likely that hitting a bicycle would have caused the damage to the radiator.

Frank Lyttelton Booth, tinsmith, said the damage to the radiator might have been caused by it being hit by some soft object and being forced back on to the fan. He would expect a hard object to have left a mark on the outside.

Gilbert Graham Gallagher, a war pensioner, said he saw both Sunbeam and Adams in the Junction Hotel just before 6 p.m. on the day of the accident.

Laurence Edward Dew, a crusher, of Halswell, said he was told there was an accident, and went and found Sunbeam lying near the road. Hubert Stephens, licensee of the Junction Hotel, said Adams was quite sober when he left the hotel.

'The hearing was then adjourned until this morning.