Men Acquitted On Assault Charge

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29903, 17 August 1962, Page 12

Men Acquitted On Assault Charge

(New Zealand Press Association)

, AUCKLAND, August 16. Two inen were found not guilty in the Supreme Court at Auckland today of assaulting Constable D. P. Pomeroy at Drury on June 7.

On two counts of burglary each was found guilty and one man was also found guilty on a further count of burglary which he faced alone.

Mr Justice Woodhouse remanded both men for sentence.

The jury also acquitted both men on a count of breaking into the Takanini Post Office on June 2.

Accused were Roger McMahon, aged 27, and Graham Toby Clark, aged 23. They faced three joint counts alleging burglaries at the Takaninl and East Tamaki Post Offices and the premises of Scoria Quarries, Ltd., East Tamaki. and one of assaulting Constable Donald Patrick Pomeroy with intent to avoid arrest or to facilitate their flight, having committed a crime.

Clark alone pleaded not Silty to committing burg■y at the Drury Post Office Incidents leading to the present Court hearing had been pre-tried by the public following a barrage from the wireless, television and newspaper publicity, counsel, Mr P. A. Williams, said in his address to the jury on behalf of McMahon. Mr Williams and Mr K. L Richardson, for Clark, submitted that the charges against the accused had not been made out. Mr Williams said doubt had been cast on the story of Constable Pomeroy about the alleged assault in the creek The constable had changed bi* story and that cast doubt on its veracity. In cross-examination in the Supreme Court Pomeroy had admitted that he went limp to “play possum” yet

earlier he had said it was genuine. Addressing the jury yesterday, the Crown Prosecutor, Mr G. D. Speight, said the jury might think that a third man actually assaulted the constable—he gave evidence that his head was held under water in a creek near the Drury Post Office after he had chased three men who were running away—and that neither of the men on trial laid hands on the constable. But the Crown suggested that by their actions they aided and abetted in the offence. His Honour, summing up, suggested that the jury should consider the charge concerning the constable tn the light of what Constable Pomercy said in Court and not what was said in the newspapers The Judge said the case posed the difficulty of the unknown third man. The jury retired at 1.33 p.m.

Storage Problem

The Shirley Boy*’ High School will make a case to the Education Department for a special storage building. It is the only school of its type with five laboratories, and the science department and others require a lot of equipment for a big roll. The school has already submitted that existing storage and library space is inadequate in the “cluster plan" of buildings.