JURY FINDS MAN GUILTY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25321, 22 October 1947, Page 3

JURY FINDS MAN GUILTY

WOMAN ASSAULTED When Arthur Ronald Morris, aged 24, a railway porter, appeared before Mr Justice Fleming in the Supreme Court yesterday on a charge of assaulting Edna Joy Lange with intent to commit rape, and also on a charge of indecently assaulting her, he pleaded not guilty to each pharge. The accused was represented by Mr J. K. Moloney. Mr A. W. Brown, who appeared for the Crown, told the jury that Mrs Lange, a young widow, attended a dance at the Caledonian Hall on July 7. She left the hall about midnight to cycle to her home in Papanui. When she turned into Vagues road a man rode up alongside her on a cycle and tried to get into conversation with her. He wanted to see her home, but she told him she did not want him to see her home. He caught hold of the handlebars of her cycle and then dragged her to the side of the road and tore her clothing. She screamed for help, but no one heard her. Each time she screamed, the man hit her, and her face was bleeding. Eventually she got away.

Identification Parade On July 25 Mrs Lange was in her father’s motor-car and saw the accused cycling towards Belfast. She later attended an identification parade and said positively her assailant was not there. The accused was not in the parade. On September 18 she was again in her fathers car and saw the man cycling towards Belfast. She and her father followed him to the Belfast railway station, and Mrs Lange then told the constable at Belfast. The accused was arrested. Later that day an identification parade was held at the Christchurch Police Station. There were 10 men in the parade, all about the same height as the accused. Mrs Lange, without hesitation, picked him out as the man who had assaulted her. He was questioned by the police, and, though he had made no written statement, he denied that he was the assailant.

The accused worked at the Belfast railway station and lived in Proctors road, Papanui. He usually left his work about midnight, and on July 7 he did so. He would arrive at Vagues road at the same time as Mrs Lange did, for the distances each had to cycle were approximately the same, continued Mr Brown. The jury had to satisfy themselves that the accused was the person who assaulted Mrs Lange. So far as identification was concerned, it was a clear night and she had ample opportunity to identify her assailant. At the second identification parade the detectives took particular pains to make it as perfect as possible. The accused was asked to change his clothing so that it would be entirely different from what he wore at work. He was tall, and other men of similar stature were selected. The accused was allowed to take up what position he liked, yet Mrs Lange had no difficulty in identifying him. If the jury had no reasonable doubt that Mrs Lange was correct, then it was their bounden duty to bring in a verdict of guilty.

Evidence for the Crown was given by Mrs Lange; William Clemis Dowdle, stationmaster at Belfast: Constable J. Thompson, of Belfast; Detective R. H. Watt: Detective C. P. Burns; and Detec-tive-Sergeant A. A. Herron.

He would suggest very strongly that a mistake in identity had been made, said Mr Moloney. The accused worked at Belfast, and so had to go along the Main North road; *he also worked during .the might, so he would be one of the class the police would be looking ’for—innocent or guilty. There was not a tittle of evidence to show that the accused was at Vagues road at that time of night. The greatest miscarriages of justice had been in cases which, like the present one, depended on identification. The responsibility of making a decision on uncorroborated evidence was a very grave one. Human beings made mistakes, and there was a grave possibility that a grave mistake had been made in this case. After his Honour had summed up. the jurv retired at 3.20 p.m. They returned in half an hour with a verdict of guilty on the first, count, and the accused was remanded for sentence.