Magistrate’s Court Three Charges Of Burglary At Airport Admitted

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30286, 12 November 1963, Page 8

Magistrate’s Court Three Charges Of Burglary At Airport Admitted

After twice breaking into the Flamingo Restaurant at the Christchurch Airport and stealing £409 from the office safe, a man returned a third time. He was seen by a security officer, and after a struggle was arrested, Sergeant V. F. Townshend told Mr K. H. J. Headifen, SM, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Duncan O'Hara, aged 36, a forestry worker, pleaded guilty to three charges of burglary on October 11, October 31, and November 8. He was remanded on bail to November 18 for sentence. The manager of the restaurant, Dirk van Doren. reported to the police oh October 12 that the restaurant had been entered during the previous night and £164 stolen from the office safe, said Seregant Townshend. There was no sign of forced entry. On November 1 a theft of £245 in similar circumstances was reported. At 11.50 pan. on November 8 the police were informed that a person had been apprehended in the terminal building at the Christchurch Airport. Arthur George Isaac, a security officer, had seen a man coming down the stairway from the office, stopped him. and struggled with him. The man, who was the accused, was apprehended. O’Hara admitted frankly to the police that he had gone to the airport to steal more money. Sergeant Townshend said. He had been there on the nights of October 11 and October 31. Before the restaurant was closed O’Hara hid in the men’s lavatory. After the staff left he took the keys from their hiding place and opened various doors. He used a key to open the safe in the office. At one time O’Hara had worked at the restaurant, and knew the routine of the staff and the hiding place of the keys. On November 9 O’Hara took the police to his bach at the Eyrewell State Forestry camp and showed them where he had left some of the stolen money. The sum of £65 10s 3Jd was recovered from the bach. The rest of the money had been spent. He had bought a power saw and later traded in the saw and bought another saw and tools, and made part payments on his car and other items.

Restitution of £343 9s BJd was sought, Sergeant Townshend said. O’Hara was married, with two children. He had not previously appeared before the Court. Asking for bail, Mr L. H. Moore, who appeared for the accused, said that O’Hara’s wife was expecting another child. Bail was granted at £lOO, with one surety of £lOO, and O’Hara was ordered to report daily to the police. THREE MONTHS’ GAOL “The evidence shows that when the constable fell to the ground you levered yourself on the car and kicked him in the face, and then you gave him a second kick while he was on the ground. There is only one punishment for this sort of unmanly and cowardly assault,’’ said the Magistrate when sentencing Royce Travis Lanyon, aged 22, a labourer, to three months’ imprisonment on a charge of assaulting Constable L. J. Petersen with intent to obstruct him.

On a charge of resisting Constable Petersen, Lanyon was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, to be served concurrently with the first term. He was fined £lO on a charge of fighting, and was ordered to pay witnesses’ expenses of £l2. Bernard William Pope, aged 21, a freezing worker, was admitted to 18 months’ probation on a charge of fighting. He was ordered to pay £lO towards the cost of the prosecution and to take out a prohibition order. He was fined £l5 on a charge of assault, and was ordered to pay witnesses’ expenses of £l2, and was fined £lO on a charge of using obscene language. The charges arose out of a disturbance at the Zodiac Lounge dance being held in the Caledonian Hall on the evening of October 11. Mr M. J. Glue, who appeared for both accused, said that from minor beginnings the incident developed into one of considerable magnitude. Lanyon and Pope did not emerge from the affair with any credit. Lanyon had let his temper get the better of him. However, the accused were not entirely responsible. Pope became involved when he tried to stop a fight. The charges in which Lanyon was involved were more serious. Lanyon was in a towering rage by the, time the police arrived, but no great harm was done to Constable Petersen. Lanyon had already been on probation, and he had responded quite well. He was far from the hooligan he must have appeared on the night. The Magistrate said he accepted that Lanyon was not entirely responsible for what occurred, but there was no excuse for his actions. Pope was in a different category. He had gone quietly to the police van after being arrested. It was obvious that Pope and liquor did not agree. “INVOLVED BECAUSE OF LIQUOR" “You are another person who has got involved in crime because of liquor,” said the Magistrate when be admitted Norman Bruce Thompson, aged 34, to probation for 18 months on a charge of stealing golf clubs and accessories, valued at £B3 18s 6d, as a servant He was ordered to take out a prohibition order and to pay £l5 towards the cost of prosecution. Mr W. A. Wilson, who appeared for the accused, said that Thompson had a dean record until this offence. He

was a married man and he had got in with a group of single men who had more money and time than he had. They attended race meetings and drank and gambled heavily. On the suggestion of another man who bad said he could take the golf dubs, sell them, and get away with it, Thompson had committed the offence on the spur of the moment. In spite of his good record he had been dismissed instantly. PROBATION "You have got a particularly good record and background, and I will take into account that you have spent a week in custody,” said the Magistrate when he admitted Alfred Stewart Kearton, aged 31, to 12 months' probation op a charge of committing an indecent act with intent to insult or offend. Kearton was ordered to pay £lO towards the cost of prosecution and to take out a prohibition order. Kearton’s behaviour was more insulting than obscene, and he had never been involved in this type of offence before, the Magistrate said. Liquor appeared to be his main trouble. Mr G. R. Lascelles, who appeared for Kearton, said he came from a good family. He was a steady worker and was well behaved and had a character well above the average. He and his family had been severely punished by the publicity. In this, type of offence a person usually acted under compulsion. Kearton had made no effort to conceal his identity. It was essentially a medical problem. WILFUL DAMAGE AND ASSAULT A hammer hurled across a room during an argument in an Armagh street flat on Sunday smashed the picture tube of a television set, causing £3O worth of damage, the Magistrate was told. Appearing separately were Sarah Maryann Callow, aged 25, who pleaded guilty to a charge of wilfully damaging the set, and Graham Rowlands, aged 23, who pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting Callow.

Callow was fined £5 and ordered to pay restitution, and Rowlands was fined £l2. Sergeant Townshend said that Callow and Rowlands had lived together. The argument was about Rowlands’s present de facto wife. When the television set was broken. Rowlands telephoned the police, and then assaulted Callow, causing her nose to bleed. DROVE UNDER INFLUENCE When a car travelling along Bowen avenue on November 3 suddenly swung towards the footpath and jumped the gutter, it nearly struck a pedestrian, the Court was told by the pedestrian, Douglas Arthur William English. The driver of the car, Robert Noble Pye, aged 64, a rubber worker, was appearing on a charge of driving under the influence of drink or drugs, to which he pleaded not guilty, and a charge of driving in a dangerous manner. to which he pleaded guilty. Pye (Mr R. L. Blunt) was convicted on both charges. On the charge of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs he was fined £4O, and his licence was cancelled for three years. On the charge of driving dangerously he was fined £5. When Pye was arrested the police had been unable to get a doctor to examine him, Senior-Sergeant G. M. Cleary said. Pye said that he had only two bottles of beer and, as he worked on late shifts, he was tired and dozed off while driving. Mr Blunt said that Pye had a permanent disability which might give the impression of drunkenness. It was, he considered, creating a dangerous precedent to convict Pye without medical evidence, because if police officers realised they could obtain a conviction without the evidence of doctors there might be a tendency not to call doctors to these cases. The Magistrate said that although medical evidence was important, in some cases it was not the most important part of a prosecution case. FINED £2O A claim that he could drive at 100 miles an hour as well as Jack Brabham was made by a man slumped in an advanced state of intoxication over the wheel of a car, the Court was told.

Pleading guilty to charges of being under the influence of drink or drugs when in charge of a car parked in Beachville road and using obscene language, Albert Leonard Sinclair, aged 42, was fined £lO on each charge. Sergeant Townshend said that a constable offered Sinclair some help. Sinclair replied with obscene language, and then he made his claim about driving. Sinclair said he had a headache and was waiting in the car for his brother. He did not think he was doing any harm. TOOK CAR Mark Moeroa Tauwhare, aged 17, pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully taking a car on November 4, and guilty to a charge of theft of a wallet containing £7 Ids 6d from a Maori boys’ hostel on October 16. He was remanded in custody cm both charges to November 18 for sentence. Sergeant Townshend said that Tauwhare was stopped in the city soon after he took the car. DROVE UNDER INFLUENCE A borrowed truck driven by Brian James Bennett, aged 20, was extensively damaged when it rolled over in a collision at the corner of Riselaw and Evans streets at 8.55 pm. on Saturday, Sergeant Townshend said.

Bennett (Mr R. J. de GoicU). who pleaded guilty, was fined £4O and prohibited from driving for three years on a charge of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs. Mr de Goldi said that Bennett had had six or seven beers. A doctor had not considered ban a bad case of intoxication, and a knock on the head had not been taken into account during the examination. FINED FOR ASSAULT A fine of £lO was imposed on Malcolm Robert Kinnaird, aged 38. who pleaded guilty to a charge of assault. Sergeant Townshend said that a fight developed between Kinnaird and a neighbour. When the neighbour's wife tried to intervene she was struck by Kinnaird. REMANDED Charged with unlawfully taking a motor-car. Brian Pringle, aged 23, was remanded on bail to November 18. Charged with assaulting his wife on November 9. HenryGeorge McMillan, aged 63. was remanded on bail to November 25. Andrew Donald Swanston. aged 49, was remanded on bail to November 18 on a charge of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs on November 9. Charged with failing to surrender car keys while under the influence of drink or drugs on November 4, George Henry Johnson, aged 56. was remanded on bail to November 25.

(Before Mr E S. J. Crutchley, S.M.) SUSPENDED SENTENCE Because his health was bad and he had kept out of trouble since 1949. Sidney James Gillan would be given a chance, the Magistrate said when convicting him and ordering him to come up for sentence if called on in three years. Gillian, who was appearing for sentence on a charge of false pretences at Rangiora on July 28, said he did not know what caused him to do “this foolish thing.” The Magistrate ordered restitution of £4B 2s, to be paid at the rate of £ 1 a week.