RIDDLED DOOR WITH PISTOL SHOTS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29649, 20 October 1961, Page 18

RIDDLED DOOR WITH PISTOL SHOTS

A young man had riddled a panel of a door in a boarding-house with shots from a .22 gas-operated sixshot repeating pistol, fired six shots into a wall, threatened a boarder with it, and brandished it at a party, said Sergeant B. D. Read in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M., was on the Bench. Kelvin John Arps, aged 21, a plumber, was fined £2O for being in possession of a dangerous weapon, and £5 on a charge of assaulting William Nelson Chamberlain. Arps and Jack Arthur Jordan, aged 22. a workman, were each fined £7 on a charge of wilful damage. The proprietor of a boarding-house at 386 Cashel street told the police at 8.40 pm. on September 9 that two boarders were firing a pistol in the premises, and that a boarder had been threatened. Sergeant Read said. He had ejected the two men and they had left carrying the pistol. The police searched the area, but the accused could not be found. The room occupied by the two accused was inspected by Detective-Constable B, I. S. Kimber. The bedroom door had been smashed, and a panel had been riddled by 10 or more

shots from the pistol There were about another six holes in one wall. After Arps and Jordan were ordered from the house they attended a party in the city and during the evening Arps produced the loaded pistol as well as a starting pistol. He waved the pistols around and they were taken from him. On the Sunday afternoon the two accused returned to the boarding-house and the police were informed. They were interviewed and admitted the facts. Both pistols were recovered from the person who had taken them from Arps the night before. The police carried out tests with the revolver, and it could be very lethal at close range. It was loaded with five slugs and was fitted with a cartridge of carbon dioxide. A similar pistol was taken from Jordan, although he did not use the pistol on the night the offences were committed. Full restitution had been made by both defendants. Neither had previously come under the notice of the police. Their only explanation for the offences was that they had consumed liquor. The shot from the pistol penetrated two inches of

hardboard and half an inch into soft timber. Sergeant Read said. Mr G. R. Lascelles, for Jordan, said both youths had consumed liquor. Jordan had played only a very subsidiary part, and was normally sensible and responsible. "This was a very dangerous sort of thing to do,” the Magistrate said. “It’s what you would expect from a mad person—mad naturally or mad from‘drink.”