Court Sitting In Gaol

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30310, 10 December 1963, Page 16

Court Sitting In Gaol

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 9. For the first time for 40 years an open session of the Magistrate’s Court was held at Auckland Prison today. Presided over by Mr A. A. Coates, S.M., the session took place behind the barred coloured windows of the prison chapel adjoining the cell block. Appearing before Mr Coates were three prisoners charged with assaulting prison warders in the prison tailoring shop on October 10. It was decided to hold the sitting at the prison because of the risk involved in bringing prisoners called as wit-

nesses for the defence into the city to the Court building. One of the witnesses who gave evidence today was an escaper, Raymond Hopewell, who is serving a sentence of preventive detention. Prison authorities believe that no public session of the Court has been held at the prison since the issue of an instruction by the DirectorGeneral of Prisons on May 12, 1923, ordering the superintendent not to allow the press to attend prison court sessions. This has since been revoked. The prison chapel, which is in the form of a theatre with a stage and a gallery, is also used for concerts and social functions. Forms had been cleared away and replaced by tables and chairs for the session.

I The three prisoners were allowed to sit next to their counsel in a row facing Mr Coates. The Justice Department received many inquiries from the public asking if they could attend the Court. They were told they could, but only one person arrived. Court officials passed through two locked doors into the chapel. The only discomfort was suffered by the police prosecutor, Mr A. B. Lawson. Drops of water from an overhead steam heater occasionally dripped on to his papers. Reporters using prison telephones were warned to make sure they got the dialling tone first. “If you don’t get the tone and then dial a number with a 6 in it you will call the riot squad,” an officer told them.