Youth Admits Arson
(New Zealand Press Association)
AUCKLAND, Sept. 22. An 18-year-old employee caused the £15.000 to £20,000 fire in the Auckland warehouse of Briscoe and Company, Limited, last month, the police prosecutor (Mr A. J. O'Connor) told Mr L G H, Sinclair, S.M, in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland today. Edward Brian Lauchlan, a storeman, pleaded guilty to charges of arson and attempted arson. Lauchlan originally appeared before the Court a month ago when he was remanded for observation to the Auckland Psychiatric Hospital. Today his counsel, Mr C. W. Hough, said the report from the hospital suggested that Lauchlan was definitely suffering from the mental disease of pyromania. There was also a “complicated” private psychiatric report he thought the Court should see.
The Magistrate remanded Lauchlan until next Friday tor a probation officer’s report and sentence. He declined a request by Mr
Hough, that the accused be remanded to the Auckland ’Psychiatric Hospital while awaiting sentence, but made an order that he be kept apart from other prisoners.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19610923.2.154
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume C, Issue 29626, 23 September 1961, Page 12
Word Count
170Youth Admits Arson Press, Volume C, Issue 29626, 23 September 1961, Page 12
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.