DECLARED HOSTILE IN BURGLARY TRIAL

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30143, 29 May 1963, Page 9

DECLARED HOSTILE IN BURGLARY TRIAL

A Crown witness was declared hostile by Mr Justice Macarthur during a trial in the Supreme Court yesterday The witness, David Ernest Hancox. was giving evidence in the trial of Kenneth Reuben Browne (Mr M. G. L Loughnan) and Graeme Russell Hancox (Mr B. J Drake), on a charge of burgling the premises of the Calder Mackay Company, Ltd., on April 7. The safe in the premises w?s blown open and £1834 stolen, the Crown Prosecutor (Mr C. M. Roper) said in his opening address.

Before the trial began, David Hancox was fined £2 by hie Honour for failing to appear on May 20, the date originally serf down for this trial. Has Honour had issued a warrant for the witness'* arrest on May 21. Soon after David Hancox began hie evidence, Mr Roper made his request to cross-examine him as hostile Hie Honour: I have no hesitation in granting leave to the Crown Prosecutor to cross-examine the witness. Statement to Police Mr Roper then referred the witness to a statement which he had made to the police on April 8. The witness admitted making this abatement, signing it, and writing, "I have read this and it is toue,” on the bottom.

In this statement the witness said that his brother got out of bed first and drove away in his stepfather's blue Hillman car on April 8.

Mr Roper: Do you say in that statement that shortly after your brother Graeme left the house, Kenneth Browne came to the house? The wiitness: Yes That is not true, I said it because I had a grudge against Browne.

Do you say later in the statemer.it that both the accused Browne and your brother came into the kitchen carrying a large sum erf money each?—l said it to make myself look big in front of the police. You say in your statement that your brother and Browne said the burglar alarm went off and that they had to jump up and stop it from ringing?—Yes. I said that. I more or less made it up. "Just a Coincidence ’

There will be evidence that the burglar alarm did go ’off and was stopped. You say you made this up?—lt is just a coincidence that it happened as I said it. Do you say later in the statement that you came back to the house in time to see your brother Graeme burrowing a hole in the ground and then placing banana crates over it?—l remember that. Was it from under those

banana crates that the police found the money?—Yes. Wasn’t it you who told them to dig under the banana crates?—No. I never told them anything like that Was it just a co-incidence that they dug in the right place?—The detective said that the only thjng that put them on to it was that the three boards were the only straight things around the place. The witness denied that Browne came to his house on that day. He had no knowledge of how the money catane to be buried, he said. He had made up this statement to the police as he went along. Mr Roper: Where have you been in the last few days? The witness: Down south. Why did you go down south? —So that I would not have to attend this trial. Was that your own Idea?— Yes. After the witness had left the box, his Honour told the jury that the statement under discussion was not made on oath. What would count in the long run, his Honour said, was the sworn evidence given in the witness-box. Manager’s Evidence

Clement Andrew Ballantyne, branch manager of the Calder Mackay and Company Ltd., said that he checked the premises at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, and all was in order. On the Sunday he again visited the building, but did not go upstairs, where the credit manager’s office is situated. When he next saw the office, on Monday morning, it was a shambles.

The safe had been blown open and the room was full of kapok from pillows and cushions which had apparently been packed around the safe, said the witness. A window at the rear of the credit manager’s office had been broken. A total of £1834 had been stolen, including £154 in cheques and £62 in silver. A burglar alarm above the credit manager’s door had been pulled off the wall and the clapper had been pulled back from the bell, said the witness.

The company’s credit manager, Ronald Bruce Newburgh, outlined his firm’s banking procedures. The last banking of the week was made at 11.30 a.m. on Friday.

Dorothy Jean Roberts, secretary of the company, said that banknotes received through the mail were marked with a number which corresponded to a number on the account for which they were payment. She identified some banknotes produced by the police as having been marked by her on April 5 in accordance with this procedure. Edna May Houston, a clerk, also identified markings made by her on banknotes received in payment of credit accounts. The trial will be continued today.