MURDER CHARGE AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27751, 31 August 1955, Page 7

MURDER CHARGE AT AUCKLAND

20-Year-Old Youth To Stand Trial

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 30. The hearing of a charge of murder against Albert Laurence Black, aged 20. a labourer, was completed in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland today, and he was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Twenty witnesses were heard in the case. Black is charged with the murder of Allan Keith Jacques, aged 19, in Ye Olde Bam Cafe, Queen street, Auckland, about 6.15 p.m. on July 26. The next sessions of the Supreme Court in Auckland will begin on October 18.

The preliminary hearing of the charge took a day and a half. Witnesses included three adolescent girls, whose names were suppressed. Today police officers produced two statements allegedly made by Black after the stabbing of Jacques. The Magistrate ordered that they were not to be published, after counsel for Black had objected. This morning the Courtroom was crowded with spectators. Mr G. S. R. Meredith and Mr G. D. Speight appeared for the Crown, and Black was represented by Mr R. K. Davison and Mr P. G. Hillyer. Mr W. S. Spence, S.M., was on the Bench. Senior-Sergeant J. R. Williamson said he was called to the watch-house at the Auckland Central Police Station at 6.20 p.m. on July 26, and there saw Black and another man, Lawson. “I asked Black what was the trouble,” said Senior-Sergeant Williamson. “He said: ‘I have stabbed a man. I was sitting in the cafe with his girl friend having a quiet cup of coffee, when he came in and punched me in the face. I stabbed him with the knife in his neck.” Senior-Sergeant Williamson said he warned Black, and Black replied that he “knew all about that.” Black looked upset. Statement Read to Court The witness said he gave Black a pencil and paper, and told him he wanted some particulars—his name and address. He told Black he would be interviewed by a member of the Criminal Investigation Branch, and that the charge against him would probably be of assault causing actual bodily harm. At that stage he knew only from what Black had said that a man had been stabbed, said- Senior-Sergeant Williamson. He did not know the extent of the injuries. Senior-Sergeant Williamson said he was called away as Black began to write his name. He returned a few minutes later, and found Black had written down a statement.

The witness read out what Black had written.

Mr Hillyer asked the Court to exercise its discretion about publication of this. He suggested that publication at this stage would be greatly prejudicial to Black. He would like an opportunity to look further into it.

The Magistrate ruled that the contents of the statement should not be published. Senior-Sergeant Williamson said he accepted Black’s statement without comment, and the matter was then

taken over by the C. 1.8. He said he smelled liquor on Black, and asked him how many beers he had had. Black replied, “Six.”

Black was not drunk, said SeniorSergeant Williamson. He spoke quite rationally and intelligently. Detective-Sergeant L. G. Schultz said he was called to Ye Olde Barn and hastily examined the body there, before it was taken to hospital. He gained the impression that the man was dead, or on the very point of death. “I saw there was a hunting-type knife stuck in the back of the head,” said Detective-Sergeant Schultz. “The only part showing was the handle, the H ad u been driven right into the head.”

He said that as the body was being taken away, it lay on its right side, with an ambulance officer supporting it so that no pressure was on the handle of the knife. Detective-Sergeant Schultz said he speke to Black later at the C. 1.8. office, and did not consider he was intoxicated. The witness said he attended the post-mortem examination on Jacques’s body next day, and was handed the knife taken from it. The knife had a sin blade, and was B?in long. Interview with Accused Detective-Sergeant R. J. Walton said he was with Senior-Detective J. B. Finlay when Black was interviewed on July 26. Black had asked whether the man he had stabbed was dead, and was told by Senior-Detective Finlay that he was. The witness described searching Black s room at 105 Wellesley street, on July 27. Black was present. In a suitcase above a built-in wardrobe he found a sheath (produced in Court). It fitted exactly the knife produced. Later in the day he returned to the house and removed certain articles, including glass, from the footpath outside.

Publication of a statement allegedly made by Black to Senior-Detective Finlay on the n*ht of July 26 was prohibited by the Magistrate, on the application of Mr Hillyer. . Senior-Detective Finlay described his intervew with Black before the statement was made. He had warned Black, and told him the matter was “very serious.”

The last witness was Dr. C. A. Corban, who described examining Black at the police station, in the presence of his solicitor. Black appeared placid, and sat quietly, said the witness. He was morose and sullen, but co-operative in replying to questions. He passed wellknown tests for intoxication satisfactorily. Black told him he had suffered from influenza, and his impression was that Black had not quite recovered from the effects of this, said Dr. Corban. . He had examined • Black for injuries. Black had a black eye and abrasions about the face, neck, one shoulder blade, and a leg. A groin injury was consistent with injuries “received at close quarters in a give-and-take scuffle,” said the witness. Dr. Corban estimated, roughly, that Black had taken about two bottles of beer. Black told him he got the black eye at midnight the previous day when another man punched him.