Man Admits Robbing And Wounding Charge

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28314, 27 June 1957, Page 16

Man Admits Robbing And Wounding Charge

Ronald Keith Ayers, aged 21, a clerk and workman, who was charged in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday before Messrs W. E. Olds and H. T. Fuller, Justices of the Peace, with robbing Nelson Fenton Higginson of about £33 12s, the property of the After Hours Petrol Service (Christchurch) Ltd., on May 30, and immediately before the robbery wounding Higginson, pleaded guilty at the end of a long hearing and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.

Mr M. G. I* Loughnan appeared for Ayers and Senior-Detective J. B. McLean prosecuted. Evidence was given by 12 witnesses, including the accused’s brother, Harold Lloyd Ayers, with whom the accused was living at the time of the robbery. Higginson, a service station was permitted to ’ give his evidence seated as he had been discharged from hospital on June 14. Higginson said that he was employed at the After Hours Petrol' Service, Ltd., and on the evening of May 30 was on duty from 4 p.m. to midnight. From 8 p.m., when another attendant left, he was alone at the service station. It was the custom for the cash register to be taken from the station into a small office before the next attendant came on duty at midnight. It would then be left in the office for the fest of the night. He had thought of doing this at 11.10 p.m., but decided it was a little too early. Request for Matches

At 11.15 p.m., he was in the office of the station when a man came to the office door and asked if matches sold, said Higginson. “I said we did and went to get the matches, which were kept on a bench in the office about six feet from the doorway,” Higginson said.

“I am not sure what happened then. I thought I had received a kick or a punch in the kidneys for a start. I thought the man was still at the door of the office when I turned to get the matches. I hung on to the bench because the blow knocked all the wind out of me. When I turned round I saw that the man was actually in the office, about three feet away from me. The only thing I heard him say was, ‘You’re a dead man’.” Then the man ran out the door in the direction of the cash register, Higginson said. A few seconds later, he followed the man out and saw him at the cash register taking money out of‘the drawer, which was open, although he had not heard the register ring. “It was then that I saw the handle of the knife and realised what had happened to me,” said Higginson. He stayed where he was then, said Higginson, because he thought that if he got another stab he would have “just about had it.” He did not want “any more of that.” The man appeared to be scooping the money out of the cash register into what seemed like a bag. Went for Help

Higginson said he ran out of the station into the roadway. He tried to stop a passing motorist by waving a torch, but the car did not stop. He saw the tail light of a parked car about 20 yards away in Latimer square. He went over to the car and asked the driver for help. The driver of this car, a Mr Karabassi, accompanied him back to the service station. By this time, said Higginson, he was feeling “pretty

groggy.” The man had disappeared. He then telephoned the police. Eventually, he was taken by a St. John ambulance to the Christchurch Public Hospital and admitted. He was discharged on June 14, said Higginson. Five knives produced were similar to the knife he saw the man with when he was stabbed, in that they had the same shiny handles, Higginson said. That was all he could say. He had only noticed the handle of the knife when he saw the man with it.

There would be £4O approximately in the cash register when the man came into the station that night, Higginson said to SeniorDetective McLean. It would be mostly in pound notes and about £7 or £8 in silver. Medical Evidence

Dr. Richard Arthur Cartwright, said he saw Higginson when he was admitted to the Christchurch Public Hospital just before midnight on May 30. Higginson had a stab wound on the right side of his back. The wound was bleeding and appeared to be a fresh one. The surface wound was about 2in to 2Jin in length and was over the tenth rib beneath the angle of the right shoulder blade. Later the penetration of the wound was found to be 2in in depth, extending into the muscles of the back. X-ray examination showed that there was no damage to the right lung, said Dr. Cartwright. Senior-Detective McLean: What could have been the effect of this injury?—lt could have been quite serious.

In what way in relation to where it was? —It might possibly have entered deeper and struck vital organs such as the right lung or the liver. That would have depended on the actual direction of the instrument. A fatal hemorrhage could have occurred, said Dr. Cartwright in answer to a further question. A fatal infection could have been another complication.

Statement Read Detective-Sergeant E. G. Ward read a statement obtained from the accused ’in the afternoon of June 14, after he had been arrested in the building of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows by a constable in the early hours of the morning. In the statement the accused said that he had been drinking heavily all 'the afternoon of May 30 but was sober when he left his home in Wilsons road to walk into the city. He had “an idea that there should be something worth while in the cash register of the After Hours Petrol Service.” The statement told how the accused had stabbed Higginson in the back and hit Higginson a blow in the face with his fist when Higginson turned round, seemingly to grab him. When he saw Higginson very pale after the stabbing, he was sorry for what he had done, said the accused. That was why he had said to Higginson: “You had better take it easy or you will be a dead man.” He had gone home feeling “scared stiff” at what he had done, the statement said. Harold Lloyd Ayers gave evidence of his brother coming home late at night on May 30 and confessing he had stabbed a man.