YOUTH ADMITS ARMED ASSAULT WITH INTENT

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 3

YOUTH ADMITS ARMED ASSAULT WITH INTENT

A cut-down .22 rifle, a home-made bomb, a cosh made of a piece of rubber hose filled with lead, a belt with four knives, and a bottle of ammonia were among the exhibits when Eryan Alfred Wilson, aged 18; a warehouse assistant, was charged in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday that on November 29, being armed with a .22 rifle, he assaulted Alfred Henry James Pedder with intent to rob him.

Mr P. A. Le Brun, J.P., and Mr W. E. Olds, J.P., were on the Bench.

Senior-Detective j. B. McLean prosecuted.

Wilson, who pleaded guilty, was not represented by counsel. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.

Alfred Henry James Pedder. a director of Cromb and Merritt, sports goods dealers, Cashel street, said he went to the shop at 6.10 p.m. on November 29 to get the van from the right-of-way. Wilson came up to him ajid asked him about fishing rods. “Wilson had, a raincoat over his right arm,” said Pedder. “He said to me: ‘Get out your keys and open up the shop.’ He had a pistol showing out from under the raincoat and pointing at me. I said: ‘What are you talking about?’ He said something about being desperate and wanting money. I said: ‘Don’t be so silly’ and I grabbed him with my right hand, knocking the pistol aside with my left hand. I pulled him close to me, caught hold of the barrel of the pistol and wrenched it out of his hand. I pushed him out to the footpath. I called to two men standing 20 to 30 yards away and they came along. “One of them was Mr McDonald, whom I knew, and I handed him the pistol and asked him to see if there was anything in the breech,” said Pedder. “He worked the bolt and a cartridge was ejected from the chamber. I think he extracted two cartridges. Two detectives came and took Wilson away. The gun produced is the one Wilson had. I noticed that Wilson had a shopping bag similar to the one produced. It was looped on his right arm by his elbow,” said witness. Horace William Allan McDonald, a painting contractor, who went to Pedder’s aid, said he thought there were other cartridges in the magazine but he did not .count them. Detective’s Evidence Detective Ernest Stanley Tuck said he and Detective Read took Wilson to the detective office about 6.15 p.m. on November 29. He searched Wilson, and in a pocket were 31 cartridges of .22 calibre. In another pocket was a length of rubber hose filled with lead and with a chain attached. In

the shopping bag were a tin of black powder with a fuse in it, a belt with four knives, a bottle of ammonia, a box of .22 cartridges, strips of cloth, a street, map of Christchurch, a camper’s combination tool, a fountain pen in a box and a small plastic bag. One knife was a sawn-off bayonet.

“I would describe the tin of black powder with the fuse as a bomb,’’ said witness. “It is blasting powder. The bomb would be more incendiary than explosive. I asked Wilson for his explanation for having the articles. He would not make a written statement. I asked him what he intended to do with the bomb. He said: ‘I was going to use it if I missed out on what I had in mind.’ I said: ‘What did you have in mind?’ He said: ‘I was going to make Pedder open the shop and the safe, and when I got the money from it I was going home to kill my father and take to the bush.’ Wilson said: ‘lt’s all down on paper there,’ and he indicated sheets of notepaper.

“On these were written items he required to take with him if he went to the bush,” said Detective Tuck.

“There was a letter addressed to the Officer in Charge, C. 1.8., Christchurch, and signed Bryan Alfred Wilson.

“I asked Wilson what he meant by the wording of the letter,, and he repeated that he was going to kill his father after robbing the sports goods shop, and was then going to take to the bush,” said Detective Tuck. “I took him to his home, and from what he told me I found in a box in a shed parts he had cut from the .22 rifle. At the factory where he had been working I found the long piece of barrel he had cut from the rifle.”

Acting-Detective Bruce Dunbar Read gave corroborative evidence.