Supreme Court TWO MEN ON CHARGE OF BURGLARY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30125, 8 May 1963, Page 10

Supreme Court TWO MEN ON CHARGE OF BURGLARY

Burglars attempting to blow open a safe on the premises of W. W. Keighley and Company. Ltd., in February bungled the job and jammed the strongroom door so that they could not open it. the Crown Prosecutor (Mr C'. M. Roper) said in the Supreme Court yesterday. Standing trial on a burglary charge are two workmen, Wayne Maurice Carstairs, aged 22, and Harold i Joseph Oakes, aged 28. I Mr Justice Wilson was on , the Bench. Mr A. B. Har- ! man appeared’ for Carstairs, and Mr B. J. Drake for Oakes. Mr Roper said that on the night of February 3 Keighley’s office block was entered, and the attempt was then made oh the safe. At 2 a m. two detectives in a patrol car noticed a car parked in Phillips street. The car was empty and the engine was warm, so the detectives called for police dogs and their handlers. While awaiting the arrival of the dogs, the detectives saw three men walking along Leeds street towards Phillips street. After reaching the corner, they returned down Leeds street. Dog Stops Man A police dog found a stick of gelignite wrapped in cloth, and a fabric glove, in grass at the side of Leeds street. The dog’s handler saw three, men-coming from a nearby driveway. The men ran back, but the dog stopped one of them, Oakes. The dog later found a leather glove and a length of bicycle tube, Mr Roper said. Bicycle tube was frequently used to put tension on the handle of a safe door to pull it open and prevent jamming when the safe was blown open. A road block was set up at the corner of Ferry road, and Fitzgerald avenue, and at 3.15 a.m. a car which passed through this block was followed by two police cars. The car stopped, and the driver ran into a driveway and escaped. He was clearly seen by a constable in the lights of the patrol car, and three weeks later was identified as Carstairs. Norman Patrick Alcorn, a ( overnment analyst, gave evidence of tests he carried out on various articles and clothing supplied to him by the police. He said he found traces of gelignite in the keyhole of the strong-room door, in the mechanism of the lock, and on' the leather glove found by the police dog Traces of gelignite were also found in a pocket of trodsers worn by Oakes and on the sole of a slice worn by him. The witness said he was

shown a broken red ballpoint pen refill which had been found on the floor of the burgled office, and found traces of similar ink on the cloth which had been found wrapped around the gelignite, the fabric glove, and >on a leather jacket worn by Oekes. A piece of bicycle tube rubber found at Carstairs’s home matched the piece found in Leeds street by the police dog, he said. To Mr Drake, the witness said that it was not possible to find by tests how long the ink had been on the leather jacket. It was a very common type of refill, and a number tested by him had given similar results. Constable D. B. Stapley described how he chased a man up a driveway-after the car had evaded the police road block. On March 1, he said, he identified Carstairs at the Central Police Station as being that man.

The trial will continue today.