Supreme Court Soldier Denies Farm House Theft Of £l9l

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29388, 15 December 1960, Page 13

Supreme Court Soldier Denies Farm House Theft Of £l9l

Nobody saw a person enter a Lincoln farmhouse on a Sunday evening in September and steal £l9l. But the Crown would bring evidence of a series of apparently disconnected ’ happenings which would fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and leave the jury with a picture, in effect, of the accused entering the house and stealing the money, Mr C. M. Roper said in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mr Roper was opening the case for the Crown against Howard Winston Ingram, aged 39, a soldier, who pleaded not guilty to breaking and entering the house of Robert Angus Reid by day and stealing approximately £l9O, the property of Grace Annie Reid, ahd £1 2s 6d, the property of Rosina Mavis Reid. Mr G. S. Brockett, for Ingram, called evidence for the defence. Counsel said the accused 'would say in evidence that he had lost his way while returning from Tai Tapu to Burnham by what he thought would be a short cut. Evidence for the defence was not completed when Mr justice Macarthur adjourned the Court until today when the trial will finish. Case for Crown Opening for the Crown, Mr Roper said the Reid house was on the main Lincoln-Tai Tapu highway near the signposted inintersection of Hudson and Ellesmere roads and the Lincoln highway. Photographic reproductions of a large plan (on a blackboard in the Court) were produced to the jury, together with a series of six photographs taken of the area.

Mrs Reid would say that on the evening in question she left the farmhouse about 6 p.m. with her husband and three children. The back and kitchen doors were closed but not locked. The family returned home about 8.15 p.m. to find both doors open,- Mr Roper continued. Some envelopes which had been on the kitchen mantelpiece were found in the woodbox at the foot of the mantelpiece. Mrs Reid would say that she went to her writing desk and found £l9O which she had in envelopes had gone. There was other money in the house which was not taken. Mrs Reid’s daughter would say that £1 12s 6d which she had in a moneybox had been taken. Mrs Reid would say that when they had gone out that evening they turned up Ellesmere road and, looking back while Mr Reid was attending to a Sick cow. she and her children saw a car parked in Hudson road near a spring hole. A man was standing on the opposite side of the road, apparently looking into the ditch. Neither Mrs Reid nor her children were able to give any description of this man or car, said Mr Roper. “On September 19, Mrs Reid, perhaps acting on womanly intuition, walked along the highway from her house to the intersection. She found a pay envelope lying in the ditch and a little further on a 10s note on the side of the road. She would say the pay envelope had been with her money before it was stolen,” Mr Roper said. Later, Mrs Reid and her husband searched along Hudson road and near the spring hole found a window envelope which they would say had also been with the stolen money. They also found a golf score card torn into pieces but dropped in a heap. When put together, the pieces showed the card to be a Tai Tapu Golf Club one with the name “Ingram” on it. Another envelope was found further down the road. Parked Car A Mrs Schroder, who lived in Hudson road, would say she left her home about 6.5 p.m. on September 18. She saw a small green car parked on 'the side of the road near the spring. Nobody was near the car. Mrs Schroeder would say she noticed that a piece of the front grill of the car was missing. On returning from Lincoln shortly afterwards she saw a man running along the highway towards the inte’reection. Mrs Schroeder would say that the man was going bald and was wearing a green wind jacket, said Mr Roper. Mr Schroeder would say that he did not go out with his wife but did the milking that evening. About five or 10 minutes after his wife returned, Mr Schroeder said he heard a noise like a truck. He was surprised to see it was a green Ford 10 h.p. car. It was making an awful noise for a small car.

A Mrs Moir, whose house was on the highway near the intersection, would say that she looked out her window and saw a small, green car parked in Hudson road. She saw a man run down

the road, get. into the car and drive towards Greenpark. Her husband would say that he farmed a property south down Hudson road towards Greenpark. About 6.30 p.m. that Sunday his truck ran out of petrol and he began to walk about threequarters of a mile from the intersection. A green Ford car came towards him from ' the Greenpark direction and Moir stopped him, said Mr Roper. “Mr Moir will say that this man was the accused. He will say that two sets of golf clubs were in the car and that the accused told him he had been going to play golf at Tai Tapu, but had missed out and gone to Akaroa. Mr Moir will say that accused asked him the way to Rolleston. It will be recalled that the signpost (in the photographs) is on the intersection,” said Mr Roper. Golf at Tai Tapu

When Ingram was interviewed at Burnham on September 22 by the police he admitted playing golf at Tai Tapu on the Sunday. Ingram at first denied stopping on the way home but later said he did because he was having engine trouble with his green Ford 10 h.p. car, Mr Roper said. Ingram admitted giving Moir a lift and told the police that he had told Moir he had been to Akaroa because he (Ingram) had not been on the Tai-Tapu road. Ingram had admitted tearing up his golf scorecard and had said he had thrown it out the window of the car. Told that the pieces had been all found together, Ingram said he got lost and admitted stopping and turning off into Hudson road, Mr Roper claimed. Ingram had admitted to the police that he was wearing a green windjacket (produced) on that Sunday but had denied he had ever got out of his car inHudson road, the prosecutor concluded.

Evidence along these lines was given by the witnesses named in Mr Roper’s address. Case for Defence

Mr Brockett, opening the defence, said Ingram would give evidence on his own behalf. A witness to be called was one of the men who had made up a foursome with Ingram and others to play golf at Tai-Tapu that Sunday. Ingram’s wife would give evidence of the time he arrived home that evening. Mrs Ingram could fix the time because she had put the baby down then. A man called Shields, a cook in the Army, would give evidence that he had been on a refresher course at Burnham Military Camp. On October 7, Shield’s would say that part of the radiator grill on Ingram’s car fell off in the road. These parts would be produced in Court. A salesman from the Manchester Car Sales would give evidence of selling the car to Ingram on September 14. An Army man would give evidence of the distance and time that it took to go from the Tai-Tapu golf course to Burnham Military Camp by the route that Ingram had followed.

Ingram would say that he played two rounds at the TaiTapu golf course, making 18 holes in all, and that the foursome ended about 5.30 p.m., Mr Brockett said. Ingram woud say he left the golf club about 5.50 p.m. His wife was not well, and Ingram thought that if he went down Hudson road he would get to Burnham more quickly than going back along the Lincoln highway to Rolleston. Ingram would say he had not been at Burnham for many months and did not know the area well. The car was not going well and he had to stop at times and clear out the radiator grill .He crossed Hudson road and made one stop to relieve himself. After going down Hudson road he found that it veered left towards the hills. He returned along it and went up a side road which led in the direction of Rolleston but found it went only to two farmhouses. He heard a sheendog barking and returned to Hudson road where he picked up the man he now knew as the farmer, Moir.

Ingram would say that after getting his direction again from Moir he set off to Rolleston and back home to Bumham, Mr Brockett concluded.

Evidence that it had taken 44 minutes to drive from Tai-Tapu to Bumham via the route Ingram would say he followed was given bv an Army sergeant. Witness said he averaged 39 miles oer hour and agreed with Mr Roner that the road was mainly sealed. Ruth Ingram, wife of the accused, said Ingram arrived home that Sunday night at 6.30 p.m. The Court adjourned at this stage.